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UID:11532-1706745600-1706831999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE GREAT DISCOVERY \nBy Fr Louis Bouyer5 \n◊◊◊ \nThe discovery of grace\, the discovery of love which loves us without \nlooking for any return\, which loves us although we are sinners\, which loves us \nin our sin\, but which alone will lead us\, by obscure ways known to God alone\, \nfrom sin to sanctity\, that is\, in the last analysis\, the great discovery. Then it is \nthat God reveals Himself to us as One who speaks to us\, as One whose Word for \nthe second time draws us out of nothingness to being\, as One whom we have \nnot so much to seek as to discover seeking us. It is He\, the Shepherd who left \nthe ninety-nine sheep in safety to seek and save that which was lost. It is He\, the \nFather of the prodigal who goes along the road to welcome his son when he has \nscarcely started out to meet his father\, and takes him in his arms. \n“To seek God”\, to seek Him as a person\, as the Person par excellence\, and \nnot only as the “Thou” to whom all our love should be addressed\, but as the “I” \nwho has first approached us\, whose word of love\, addressed to the primeval \nchaos\, drew us forth from it in the first place\, and\, spoken to us in our sin\, draws \nus forth from it again: to be a monk is nothing else than this. To be a monk\, \nthen\, is simply to be an integral Christian. And regarded in this light\, the \nChristian is simply the person restored by the Word of the Gospel to the \nvocation which the creative Word destined for each: to respond to the Word of \nAgape by the word of faith\, in order eventually to meet God face to face. \nCommenting on Canticle of Canticles\, Origen tells us that the Church\, \nunder the old dispensation\, only heard the Bridegroom’s voice\, whereas in the \nnew\, she is offered the sight of his countenance. And he adds that the \ndevelopment of the Christian life is made up solely of this transition. The monk \nis the one who does not limit him or herself to accepting it in some measure \npassively\, by yielding to grace slothfully and reluctantly. The monk is one who \nresponds with the whole heart to the call which comes from the very heart of \nGod. Monks are of the number of the violent who will not allow the divine \nKingdom to fall upon them as it were unawares\, but who take it by storm in \nadvance. For that the monks have staked their all\, they have burned their boats. \nTo the one who believes that life consists in what is possessed\, the monk \nseems to be consenting to\, even to be deliberately seeking\, a fatal renunciation. \nTo the one who knows that being is of greater value than having\, and that being \nwhich is of value is not that which passes but that which endures\, the monk will \nseem to be the only true humanist. For the human person is born only as subject \nto the divine Word and will only be fully that person the day when\, freed from \nthe nothingness which holds one prisoner\, fully surrendered to the Word which \ncalls\, the person will at last come to discover the Face which promised us being \nin promising us His own image. \n  \n5 The Meaning of the Monastic Life\, Louis Bouyer\, New York\, 1955\, p.19 & 22.11
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-154/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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