Two realities embrace - nature and grace

A spiritual conference from our resident Benedictine mother superior

Wood statue of Santa Scholastica, Basilica of St. Benedict, Norcia. Photo by me, 2014. This statue, which was my favourite thing in the old basilica, was destroyed in the final October earthquake in 2016. As far as I know this snap I took after dark and in poor light, is the only photo of it that exists online.

Instead of our usual bifurcated Goodie Bag post, today I’m happy to present another very helpful and encouraging “conference” from our friend Mother Marie Billingsley, an American nun who is founding a small traditional Benedictine community here in Italy.

Mother Marie and me last year, enjoying a picnic with friends at the Sacro Speco, a place near Narni where St. Francis of Assisi liked to go on retreat, and where an angel visited and kept him company during one of his many illnesses.

In our book group on the Substack chat, we’re carefully looking at the Church’s almost-lost teaching on Mystical Theology, the science of sanctification, and working out ways we can “pursue holiness” in the context of normal daily lay life in our own time.

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Abbess Cecile Bruyere, 1st abbess of St. Cecilia's Abbey, Solesmes and a follower of Dom Prosper Guéranger

In the Benedictine Book Club, we’ve been going slowly through the spiritual classic “The Spiritual Life and Prayer According to Holy Scripture and Monastic Tradition,” by the great 19th century abbess, Cecile Bruyere. (You can buy it here and here.) I’ve been very encouraged and even edified by the discussions we’ve been having as Abbess Cecile lays out what the spiritual life actually is, according to nearly forgotten principles of Mystical Theology.

Chapter V: The Sacraments

A great many of us have heard all our lives from the Church about the “pursuit of holiness” being a “universal call”, but its incredibly rare that anyone is given concrete instruction about what that actually means. How do we get to “holiness” from where we are today? It’s a question we’re exploring in the group and in some posts for paid subscribers: The Desert and the Pursuit of Holiness, Part 2.

The “interior life” is usually dismissed or even simply entirely memory-holed in an ecclesiastical environment that has for hundreds of years become more and more concerned with the affairs of this world. By exploring what these terms actually mean, we are diving into a tradition that takes us back 1700 years to the origins of Christian mysticism in the Egyptian and Syrian deserts, and the original purpose of the Christian life itself. And why it is not only possible, but an absolute requirement for all who aspire to the final victory.

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What is “mystical theology” and why do I need it?

As we’ve discussed, the Transfiguration icon is a lesson in the kind of transformation we hope to receive through the pursuit of the “Three Ways” of the spiritual life, Purgation, Illumination and ultimately, Union with God. His Transfiguration is a hint of what we can hope for; a total, radical transformation. The disciples' ascent up the mountain can be seen as the purgative way; their experience of Christ’s divine light represents the illuminative way; and the vision of Christ in His glorified state symbolizes the unitive way.

What do you think of when you hear the term, “mystical theology”? Does it seem like something that is essentially none of your business? Too “high” for you? The province of contemplative monks and nuns, perhaps, or even of specialist academics? Do we just assume, without thinking about it, that moral theology - how we should behave - is the most important?

These errors are natural assumptions, perhaps, in an ecclesiastical situation as dire as our own. We have had decades now of a crisis in the Church so extreme that we begin to wonder if there even will be a visible institution in another generation.

Mystical theology is simply the “science” of sanctification; it answers the questions of how, concretely, we become saints. It seeks to describe the methodology of the soul’s journey toward an intimate union with God, not only in heaven after death, but in this life. Central to this journey are the "Three Ways," the ancient framework of all Christian spiritual writing, that describes the “the purgative way, the illuminative way, and the unitive way.” These stages outline the path from the initial cleansing of the soul from sin and movement toward the ultimate goal of union with God.

I’ll let Mother Marie take it from here…

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A visit to a modern hermit

Sister Monica's hermitage, in France.

♱ Pax in prœlio

“You're late!” The voice was coming from the woods behind the little chalet type hermitage. It’s Sister Monica, hermit for over 50 years¹, and now in her 90’s. It was not easy finding the hermitage with the brief directions that she gave me that same morning after holy Mass: walk until you get to the sign that reads, Pindreau, then, look up…After two hours, I found it.

Sister Monica is not very well known, but she assured me that the true hermits will never be found, if possible, and that in the beginning of living her vocation as hermit, she had to be “ferocious” in order to keep curious people far from her hermitage. Nevertheless, those who do discover her and come with a true need or purpose, are received with charity and given wise advice from one whose only occupation is nothing less than God; and it helps to be on time.

What is it to be a hermit? How does one unify the natural reality of living in this world, which is passing, and the supernatural reality for which we are made and which is eternal? And, what would a hermit know about living in this world and striving to get to heaven by the means that “ordinary” folk have to use? It’s a bit of a secret, or rather a mystery, how a hermit would know all about it; but by reading the lives of the desert Fathers, you discover that they have a keener understanding of how to deal with this apparent contradiction. Live in this world and be not of it; live for the other world, in faith, and be not of it either… yet.

Looking after the chickens

Two realities; supernatural and natural, in ordered harmony

Two realities that fall perfectly into the paradoxical aspects of our Faith; leave all to find all, die in order to live, become poor in order to be rich, joy in suffering. Sister Monica’s whole person, her attitude, her words, made me understand that I was asking the right person. There are supernatural realities and there are natural realities, and because we are of both, we need to learn to harmonize them in order to find unity in our souls and peace in our hearts.

“Pax” - it is written over the front door of every Benedictine house in the world. The abbey of Montecassino.

Pax! Who doesn’t want peace of soul? It seems like the “pearl of great price” for which we would sell all of our goods in order to possess it.

Isn’t it just wonderful to sit down and look at those dreamy pictures of nuns praying in the garden with an angelic gaze upon the heavens? Or who hasn’t felt that if only they could afford to buy a little dainty Irish cottage and dedicate themselves to just reading and contemplation, they would surely reach the highest form of the unitive way? How to get from our daily humdrum lives to the heights for which we feel called? There seems to be an abyss between reaching this sort of peace.

The tranquillity of order: a life set in motion towards an end

St. Augustine teaches that peace is the tranquillity of order. We seem to know what tranquillity is, but in our times it might be good to see if we know what order is. An ordered life is a life that is set in motion towards an end or goal, using everything as a means to reach that goal. When we say that grace builds on nature, we are admitting that there are laws written into these two realities of grace and nature that if not respected, will not have the results for which each was made.

We aspire after the grace of the unitive way, of becoming united to God for whom we are made and who too desires this for us, but it can only be done if we agree to submit to the laws which guide this reality to its culmination.

First, remember that God is on our side! He is our Father and, even more, the spouse of our souls. Not only does He desire that we be united to Him, but He is going to pick up the pieces when we have let them fall to the ground. He is going to rearrange the puzzle of our confusing thoughts in order to make a beautiful image. He will mend the torn garment, so that we can go into the wedding feast proudly and be called up to the highest place.

The Divine Office. A life rightly ordered: work, recreation, eating, sleeping, and praying.

Keeping the right end in sight

Secondly, don’t mistake the means for the end, a problem with all of us creatures having reason and will. As soon as we realize that we are putting more importance on the means instead of the end, don’t hesitate to try another means in order to detach yourself from the means which became an obstacle.

Here’s an example, you make the good resolution to spend 15 minutes in spiritual reading each day at 11 am. Everything goes well (Warning: every resolution has its efforts, so “well” means you were able to overcome personal struggles, like putting the phone down, reorganizing the lunch preparation, etc).

Since it takes about 3-4 weeks to form a habit, you were getting it down and even progressing in understanding and the desire for prayer increased, and low and behold, that unforeseen event comes to make it absolutely impossible to keep your resolution. Your first reaction might be an interior movement of annoyance. This first movement is not a problem, but be careful not to give into this sentiment or it will completely take over your soul and take away any peace of soul that you acquired.

Do not think that your whole spiritual edifice is going to come crashing down, the act of charity that you are “obliged” to do takes on a sort of spiritual precedence and will make up for any time not dedicated to the spiritual reading. Detach yourself from the means and lift up your heart to go to the end, which is acting for God, to obtain union with Him.

Cultivate the fulness of the Baptismal goals

The third point I learned from Sister Monica, and it has recently has been confirmed through reading Mother Cecile’s book on The Spiritual life and Prayer. To achieve the plenitude of the Christian life one must cultivate one’s baptism. That simple. Know yourself and know who God is. St. Augustine prayed every day: “Lord Jesus, let me know myself and know You..”

There is doctrine involved in this, which failure to know and understand could be an obstacle to your advancement. Understanding the wounds of original sin, and what baptism did for you to get you out of it, is one of the keys to working with the two realities of our human nature and grace. The doctrine of who God is and His indwelling in the souls of the baptized is of paramount importance.² Without the knowledge of these simple things any spiritual life risks being unstable and the soul falls into illusions more easily.

It doesn’t have to be elaborate. An “icon corner” is a normal feature of homes in the Byzantine Christian world, and is increasingly popular in the Latin west.

Some concrete suggestions

All this being said, there is the choice of the means we take to realize this Christian life in practice. We don’t have time to enter into a lot of detail, that could be for another article, but one thing that I would very highly recommend, and which should not be considered superfluous to obtaining the intimacy with God that we are yearning for: have a space in your house that is your “prayer space”. It can be as small as a corner with a chair, an icon or statue, your bible and other spiritual reading books, holy water. Nothing goes into that “prayer space” that is not of God, especially the phone or any type of screen.

That space will become your sanctuary where your only occupation is God. And you will have to defend that space, as Sr. Monica did, “ferociously”. You should enter into your “sanctuary” for a determined amount of time, even if for a few minutes, every day and once there, give your heart and mind to the things of God. “But thou, when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee.” (Mt. 6:6)

Finally, and to circle back to a point I made further up: there are laws in nature that must be respected. An airplane won’t fly if the engineers ignore the law of gravity. God is a person. To develop a relationship with someone you need to spend time with that person, get to know them, how do they see things, what their interests are.

Father Cassian, founder of the Norcia Benedictines, has a few conferences in which he explains how to do Lectio Divina and how to pray.³ He insists that the only way to develop a prayer life is to pray! Another monk, Father Jerome, a cistercian, said the same thing in this way: if you want to become a friend of God, you need to stay close to him, speak to him, and “put in the hours” it takes to form a true and lasting friendship. That is the ascetical part of living the Christian life.

“Keep death daily before your eyes” - Rule of St. Benedict

When I asked her if she was ready to die, Sr. Monica responded that it would be a shame to die now that she has finally, after more than 50 years in seeking the Face of God, has just now begun to enjoy the fruits of her labour. This is not said in order to discourage you! But on the contrary to put things back into the perspective of the reality of the time it takes to cultivate a profound interior life based on the special and personal graces and lights that we receive in our daily lives.

Be patient, perseverant, gentle and firm with your soul and you too shall enter into the enjoyments of the fruits of your labour in the garden of your soul.

1. Sister Monica had received permission from her superiors to become a hermit after a time of discernment. She had been in a contemplative Dominican monastery and began her hermit life just around the time of the Second Vatican Council. She was in touch with two monks who had left their monastery because of the changes imposed by the novel spirit reigning in the Church, Father Emmanuel and Father Gerard, who had built their hermitages on a mountain not far from where she was. This last would end up not feeling called to the hermitage life and eventually became the founder of St. Marie Madeleine Monastery in Barroux, France. She has been one of the spiritual and hidden pillars of the traditional movement. Sr. Monica had to make her living since what the diocese gave was only the possibility of building her hermitage on the site of the apparition of Our Lady of Laus. She typed out manuscripts and proofread for a Catholic book printing press.

2. Abbess Cecile surprised us all when she said that it is dogmatic theology - the study of the nature of God Himself, and not moral theology that should be of paramount interest for those who aspire to the heights of sanctification. To know God is the first goal.

3. We’ve been going through these conferences in the Book Club, and you can find them on YouTube here.