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SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Gregory the Great
DESCRIPTION:THE UNENCOMPASSED LIGHT \nBy St Gregory the Great1 \n◊◊◊ \nThere is in contemplation a great effort of the mind\, when it raises itself \nup to heavenly things\, when it fixes its attention on spiritual things\, when it tries \nto pass over all that is outwardly seen\, when it narrows itself that it may be \nenlarged. And sometimes indeed it prevails and soars above the resisting \ndarkness of its blindness\, so that it attains to somewhat of the unencompassed \nLight by stealth and scantily; but for all that\, to itself straightaway beaten back \nit returns\, and out of that light into which panting it had passed\, into the \ndarkness of its blindness sighing it returns. \nIn the wrestling of Jacob with the Angel\, the Angel symbolizes the Lord\, \nand Jacob\, who contends with the Angel\, represents the soul of each perfect \none\, who exercises contemplation. Such a soul\, when it strives to contemplate \nGod\, as if placed in a wrestle\, now comes uppermost\, because by understanding \nand feeling it tastes somewhat of the unencompassed Light; and now falls \nunderneath\, because in the very tasting it faints away. Therefore\, so to say\, the \nAngel is worsted when by the innermost intellect God is apprehended. \nAlmighty God\, when He is now known through desire and intellect\, dries \nup in us every fleshly pleasure; and whereas before we seemed to be both \nseeking God and cleaving to the world\, after the perception of the sweetness of \nGod\, the love of the world grows feeble in us\, and the love of God alone waxes \nstrong; and while there increases in us the strength of inmost love\, without \ndoubt the strength of the flesh is weakened. \nThe sweetness of contemplation is worthy of love exceedingly\, for it \ncarries away the soul above itself\, it opens out things heavenly\, and shows that7 \nthings earthly are to be despised; it reveals things spiritual to the eyes of the \nmind\, and hides things bodily. \nBut we must know that so long as we live in this mortal flesh no one so \nadvances in power of contemplation as to fix the mind’s eyes as yet on the \nunencompassed ray itself of Light. For the Almighty God is not yet seen in this \nbrightness\, but the soul beholds something beneath it\, by which refreshed it \nmay progress\, and hereafter attain to the glory of the sight of Him. When the \nmind has made progress in contemplation it does not yet contemplate that \nwhich God\, but that which is under Him. But in that contemplation already the \ntaste of interior quiet is experienced.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-gregory-the-great-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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