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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260619
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260620
DTSTAMP:20260616T061448
CREATED:20260614T104633Z
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UID:15077-1781827200-1781913599@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from “On Contemplating God” by \nWILLIAM OF ST THIERRY6 \n◊◊◊ \nThus far I have perceived and seen\, faintly enough indeed; and yet that \nslight experience has sufficed to kindle my longing afresh\, so that I can scarcely \nnow contain myself for hoping that one day you will remove your covering hand \nand pour out your illuminating grace\, so that at last\, dead to myself and alive to \nyou\, according to the answer of your truth with unveiled face I shall begin to see \nyour face\, and by that seeing shall be united to you. O face\, face\, happy face that \nmerits thus to be united to yourself through seeing you!.. Here with truth and \nfittingly it sings: “My heart has said to you\,’My face has sought you; your face\, \nLord\, will I seek.’” \nSo\, as I said: by a gift of your grace looking at all the nooks and limits of \nmy conscience\, I desire only and exclusively to see you\, so that all the ends of my \nearth may see the salvation of their God; and that\, when I have seen him\, I may \nlove him whom to love is to live indeed… \nBut he who longs for you…is at once confronted with the qualities that \nmake you lovable; for from heaven and earth alike and by means of all your \ncreatures these present themselves to me and urge me to attend to them. And \nthe more clearly and truly these things declare you and affirm that you are \nworthy to be loved\, the more ardently desirable do they make you appear to me. \nBut alas! This experience is not one to be enjoyed with unmitigated \npleasure and delight; rather it is one of yearnings\, strivings\, and frustration\, \nthough not a torment without some sweetness. For just as the offerings I make \nto you do not suffice to please you perfectly unless I offer you myself along with \nthem\, so the contemplation of your manifold perfections\, though it does give us \na measure of refreshment\, does not satisfy us unless we have yourself along with \nit. Into this contemplation my soul puts all its energies; in the course of it I push \nmy spirit around like a rasping broom. And using these qualities of yours that \nmake you lovable like hands and feet on which to lift my weight\, with all my \npowers I reach up to you\, to you who are Love supreme and sovereign Good. But \nthe more I reach up\, the more relentlessly am I thrust back\, and down into \nmyself\, below myself… \nSo when my inward eyes grow blurred like this\, and become dim and \nblind\, I pray you with all speed to open them\, not as Adam’s fleshly eyes were \nopened\, to the beholding of his shame\, but that I\, Lord\, may so see your glory \nthat\, forgetting all about my poverty and littleness\, my whole self may stand \nerect and run into your love’s embrace\, seeing him whom I have loved and \nloving him whom I have yet to see. In this way\, dying to myself\, I shall begin to \nlive in you. \n  \n6 On Contemplating God – William of St Thierry.13
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-436/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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