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What does it mean to be a contemplative? Father Robert Elias discusses  the chapter, “A Listening Heart” from the book Seasons of the Heart, written by Father John Welch, O.Carm.  Through Christ, God calls us to a relationship with Christ that is a self-discovering liberation in the context of friendship and trust. This contemplative relationship, which is built in silence, is not an escape, but enables us to enter more fully in solidarity and compassion with our poverty and the world’s poverty.  As a result, we are able to love and see the world as He loves and sees the world.

SOURCE: OCDS Meeting, May 2018

The Life of prayer in the Purgative Way, is the first water that St. Teresa talks about in The Life. There are four waters, and the Purgative Way is the first water. She explains the analogy of the well, where we are doing all the work; this is the Purgative Way form of prayer that she talks about in The Life, Chapters 11 to 13. For growth in the art of prayer, two things are necessary: desire it and have determined determination. Never give it up.

A Benedictine Father once said so well, ‘Until we are convinced that prayer is the best use of our time, we will never find time for prayer.’ There’s always going to be something to do. There’s no end to being busy, and until we are convinced that prayer is the best use of our time, we will never find time for it.

In the Purgative Way, especially as it develops in the Third Mansion, prayer mostly looks like, practically speaking as a basic and firm anchoring into the Liturgical life of the Church. In more common terms, you’ve got to have your Magnificat; without it, you’re disoriented. The prayer books, the prayer life of the Church and the daily readings anchor you.

In beginning, you develop a unique cultivation of sacred Scripture, and are starting to actually open the Bible, read it for ourselves, and explore what it might mean. Knowing the Word of Jesus is the foundation of a prayer life that is coming to know the heart of Jesus.

Also, the beginner in the first three mansions cultivates ordinary love and prayer through a personal relationship with Jesus. This teaching is from Father Datius, an Indian Carmelite father who has since gone to the Lord. He died recently but gave a lot of retreats. He says this about cultivating ordinary love and prayer, and a personal relationship with Jesus.

‘We start at reading the areas in sacred Scripture’ – meditating in the areas of Scripture which speaks to us directly in God’s love for us in a personal way. ‘Meditate,’ which means reflect calmly; that’s what meditation is with Christians, and it’s different than Buddhists. ‘Reflect calmly on God’s loving presence in our life.’ Throughout each stage of our life, God’s love was always there.

Reflect on that. You can even use the rosary to do it as your vehicle. ‘See how God has been as a provident provider and lover in every phase of your personal history.’ He’s always been there, always providing, always bringing you out a bind, picking you up on your feet again, and wiping off the dust from a fall.

‘Meditate on God’s mediated love, the way He’s come to you through the means of various people in your life, which have been God’s love in disguise.’

Also, a person can journal, begin to write about their spiritual life, and start to learn better about how God is working in their life by writing it out. Sometimes, God can speak to us in our hearts as we write. We can also be developing gospel friendships and being careful about the company that we keep because whether it’s good company, it rubs off and if it’s bad company, it also rubs off.

This stage of prayer in the Third Mansion is what’s called an Affective Prayer, and as Saint Teresa would call it, the Prayer of Simplicity. Affective Prayer means a prayer of the heart is beginning to start. This means love, praise, thanksgiving, adoration, the sentiments of repentance and surrender; an intercession that is empathetic, that has empathy for those you are praying for. You really like praying for others from the heart and feeling where their needs are, suffering with them, and rejoicing with them.

St. John of the Cross refers to this Prayer of Simplicity as Active or Acquired Contemplation. It’s a prayer that can be taught and involves our effort. It is not yet infused supernaturally, and doesn’t yet have the more the direct inflow of God’s spirit.

God alone can take us beyond this form of prayer into Prayer of Recollection, or what St. John of the Cross calls, Initial Contemplation, which starts in the Fourth Mansion. The transition from natural prayer to the more supernatural prayer, a deeper communion with the Holy Spirit, begins in this fourth stage.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen

SOURCE: Teresa 5, Copyright 2018, Father Robert Barcelos, OCD

In the Teresian analysis, the conditions for growth in prayer, the foundation for growth and prayer, is humility, detachment, and love of neighbor, as she has described in The Way of Perfection. Humility, detachment, and love of neighbor are the foundations of prayer, but the conditions for growth in prayer require solitude, fortitude, obedience, and especially generosity.

Too human prudence, a delicate issue for our egos, is a roadblock from transitioning to deeper prayer and deeper intimacy with God. So many of the gospel parables and gospel teachings take us way beyond the limits of just mere human prudence. So many of the gospel teachings talk about God’s lavish generosity.

It wouldn’t have been prudent for the prodigal father to receive his son back, put a robe on his back, put a ring on his finger, place sandals on his feet, have a celebration, and kill the fatted calf. Human prudence would say, ‘That’s a little bit too much!’ But this parable expresses the folly of God’s love. God’s love can be ridiculously generous and overwhelmingly good in lavishing of itself. That is supernatural’; that is agape.

We cannot get to agape love with too human prudence, I’m sorry! And I’m repeating that to myself more than to anybody else here. Here, spiritual reading and meditation is so important. As Sister Ruth Burrows says, ‘Study Jesus Christ in the Gospel and follow Him in His sacred humanity.’ That’s an echo of Saint Teresa. Sister Ruth Burrows says, ‘Do all you possibly can to get to know Him.’

In the Purgative Way, the first three mansions, the work of the mind is indispensable. Because God is not manifesting Himself in any direct way, we need to do the work to get to know Him in a practical way – learn our faith. People only really start to make effort, and actually learn our faith as adults firsthand and take the initiative to actually read something Catholic rather than just wasting our time with just novelties or trivialities, in the Second Mansion. Once people get to the Second Mansion, they actually start to read things that can be of benefit to their spiritual life.

Sister Ruth Burrows says, ‘Eat His words, take them right down into your heart, live them; take a story from the Gospels – read it, recall it, and then believe that you are the person in it with Jesus who questions and invites you to respond.’

The work of the imagination needs to be incorporated in the first three mansions.

Meditation through the effort of the mind is really important for beginners, as Saint John of the Cross would say.

The subtle subjects for meditation are many, but Saint Teresa insists that we meditate on the love shown by God and giving us a son. Go deep into that, try to understand that on a deeper level – on the love of Jesus Himself, on His life, His mysteries, especially His Passion and death.

Traditionally, in the first three mansions, it was suggested that a person meditate on sin and its consequences, on death, on mortality, the fact that we will be judged by God and everything will come into the light, and that there will be only winners or losers, heaven or hell. That very basic framework of reality was often suggested to be the focus of meditation in the first three mansions, in the Purgative Way.

Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene says, “Meditation’s only aim is to enlighten the mind and enflame the heart, to move the will toward more virtuous living. In more contemplative prayer, meditation’s aim is to dispose the mind to contemplation, so as to nourish love – the quiet rest of the simple gaze of love fixed on Christ, or all three persons of the Trinity.”

In other words, we’re not thinking just to gain information, or to know more facts about the saints, and to explore our curiosity about a teaching. We’re only simply looking for something to enlighten our mind in faith, hope, and love in our relationship with God, in order to enflame our hearts, which will hopefully lead to a more virtuous living.

This disposition through the Prayer of Simplicity means telling God peacefully, with frequent pauses, in a thousand different ways, in your own words – that you love Him and that you desire to love Him more and more; that you want to prove your love for Him. It’s that coloqui. St. Teresa talks about the nectar of mental prayer, the heart-to-heart communication.

SOURCE: Teresa 5, Copyright 2018, Father Robert Barcelos, OCD

The kind of prayer that is common in the Third Mansion is active Recollection, a simplified form of mental prayer; the prayer is becoming less the work of the mind and more the work of the heart – ‘not thinking much but loving much’ as Saint Teresa says.

In this active Recollection, this simplified mental prayer is what is referred to as the Prayer of Simplicity. You may be staying with a particular scripture in a particular disposition of soul and lingering with that longer than normal, and bringing that before the Lord.

The gift that’s prominent from the Holy Spirit – remember the gifts went from Fear of the Lord, to Reverence and now it’s Fortitude. And also, as it relates to St. John Cross’ doctrine, the Active Night of the Senses happens in the Third Mansion and partially in the Second Mansion.

Saint John of the Cross explains four nights: the Active and Passive Night of the Senses, which is what we can say as the surface level of the soul, the spiritual life that is more bound to the senses – how everything comes to our soul through the senses. The other two nights are the Active and Passive Night of the Spirit. The spirit is a deeper, more purer part of ourselves and our inner interior life.

The Active is what we do, and the Passive is what God does.

In the Purgative Way, the soul turns away from the spirit of the world, as St. John the Cross refers to ‘the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.’ It develops knowledge of self, as St. Teresa emphasizes, the soul develops knowledge of self as imagio Dei – the image of God.

‘In this purgative way, one is easily subject to ones feelings, one’s emotions and mood swings.’ Father Garrigou-Lagrange refers to it as ‘dependence upon fluctuations of sensibility. Such subjective states are greater strongholds.’ The subjective state of what I feel and what I am personally experiencing most immediately becomes a stronger influence on my liberty and capacity to be happy, than the truth of what God does in its purity. Spiritually speaking, our interpretations are very subjective, and for that reason, a real deep sense of discernment is pretty rare as a dominant gift in this stage.

Here is an exhortation from St. Ignatius, ‘In times of desolation remember consolation. In times of consolation, prepare yourself for adversity.’ This idea is actually found in the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament, especially in the Book of Sirach.

We must be aware of certain truths like the bookmark of Saint Teresa teaches us, to know that God’s love does not change. ‘His grace is always present, though sensible consolation may be absent.’ So even if I can’t feel God is with me, it doesn’t mean that He isn’t.

‘In this purgative way, a soul is still subject to varying negative cycles, like discouragement.’ I would simplify discouragement as believing more in one’s own weakness than in God’s love for us; putting to focus more on my own weakness than in God’s love for me in my weakness. At times, some may even get to the point of despairing of God’s mercy because of the knowledge of our sins during times of desolation. Ascetic exercise here is essential and what we mean by this are that one, works of mercy – spiritual and corporal works of mercy; penance, which means fasting, vigils and prayer.

SOURCE: Teresa 5, Copyright 2018, Father Robert Barcelos, OCD

The soul in the Third Mansion has not yet experienced the supernatural force of love; this is still a natural spirituality – it’s growing, its mature, it has foundations, but a person hasn’t entered yet into the more the supernatural, infused gifts of God’s grace.

As a result, because the supernatural force of love has not yet been experienced, as a Christian, the person’s love and response to God’s spirit is governed by an often too human prudence; this too human prudence limits the soul’s growth to what can be understood or measured by natural reason or common sense alone. This fault is a huge one for everybody, and priests are definitely no exception.

In the Third Mansion, especially, the biggest struggle is Pharisaism, becoming very Pharisaical, doing all the right things for the wrong reasons. It becomes more about you than it becomes about God. And when the ego gets involved in selfish ambition and jealousy, the drama in prayer groups, conflicts in parishes, all the chaos that happens in the parish staff, and all the difficulties like a soap opera can erupt.

Christians are human beings just like nonbelievers and anybody else. A big part of the Pharisaism in the Third Mansion can be one’s tendency to be attached to one’s own agenda, and not even know it. The person carries an ambition and an agenda that comes from one’s own will, but is done in the name of God.

As a result of this stronghold of egoism – the personal agenda, my will, and my way of seeing things, and my way of understanding the Doctrine of the Faith, and the tradition of the Faith – a person can become very legalistic. A person can become very legalistic and ultraconservative in a way that can limit growth, just like the Pharisees.

Prudence is one of the cardinal virtues; after humility, it is the most important virtue that bridges Humility and Love; Humility and Love are the most important virtues. Humility is the root, Love is the fruit, and the stem is Prudence – a proper understanding of how to apply the truth of God to respond to the will of God; a proper understanding of how to respond to God’s grace. That’s Prudence and it’s very, very important.

When Prudence becomes too earthbound, too human, too much natural reason left to itself, and not enlightened by supernatural faith and what God reveals about Himself and the radical, paradoxical nature of the Gospel, there begins to be a confusion of the Gospel.

SOURCE: Teresa 5, Copyright 2018, Father Robert Barcelos, OCD

The Third Mansion, the third stage, is what’s called mature friendship. Now our spiritual life is well-regulated. It’s well-ordered; we’ve been around the block spiritually a bit, we know where the pitfalls are and understand what it means to stay on track. We’ve picked up and we’ve learned a lot along the way.

Spiritual foundations have been laid. There is the practice of discipline, what the classical tradition calls mortification and penance, the desire to learn and grow in the things of God, especially prayer and meditation, and we also have an active life of charity. One is involved in some kind of service, some kind and giving of ourselves. It doesn’t necessarily have to be formally at the parish as a Catechist, Lector, or Eucharistic Minister. There’s some kind of gift of giving of myself on a regular basis.

The person acknowledges prayer now not simply as one of petition when in need, or for one’s own consolation, but prayer becomes a daily necessity for the battle of life. There is a renewed vigor, initiative, and longing of the soul. In other words, by this time, attendance at Sunday Mass is no longer enough. Daily mass becomes almost a necessity. We desire to attend prayer groups, retreats, days of recollection, and we consecrate our lives to God in a renewed way.

All of this becomes very important, and we not only want to turn to the heart of God in a renewed way, but to belong, be united and bound to the heart of God. For this reason, in this stage of the Third Mansion, people start to seek to belong to groups like the (Secular) Order of Discalced Carmelites, the Third Order, confraternities, and that kind of thing; religious vocations and holy marriages come from this third stage.

Some of these thoughts are collected, not verbatim, but collected from Father William Wagner, as part of the website, Opus Angelerum. Part of this mature friendship is a well-regulated spiritual life, which means a good moral life. One is consciously, carefully avoiding the sin, not only mortal sin of course, but including venial sin. One is actively, conscientiously putting one’s best foot forward. We become very aware of venial sin, and it becomes very important for us to it.

That was the positive. On the other side of the proverbial coin, now the other side, the predominant faults of people in the Third Mansion are hidden in the sight of others. People don’t see the faint faults of people in the Third Mansion.  People are not necessarily committing sin by deliberate actions or living a double life.

The predominant faults are mostly in the thought life of the person, in the thought life. What does that look like? – criticizing others, being very harsh in our judgment of other people, easily scandalized by other people’s thoughts when they’re not as holy as you would expect or want them to be, becoming easily scrupulous, often times of spiritual things, complaining.

One of many favorites from St. John of the Cross is spiritual gluttony. Spiritual gluttony can be understood in different ways. For instance, ‘I no longer have an addiction to shopping for fashion, but I have an addiction to shopping for rosaries and Catholic books and movies; it’s never enough. I always have to have the next best picture of our Blessed Mother and then my house is full of statues because I just can never have enough. Spiritual gluttony is about always wanting to collect and have these sense consolations.

Also in this stage could be gossip. Gossip is a tricky thing because it’s such a slippery slope. For example, I could start off saying something very pious like ‘Oh, let’s pray for this person and let me tell you why we need to pray for this person.’ And you go way more into detail than you need to, and without intending to, because of that going back and forth, you can easily spiral away into gossip more than it is concern for the soul.

One of the practical boundaries in checking ourselves and making sure we don’t slip into that, is the question ‘Would I say this in his presence? Would I say this if he were right behind me? Would I say this if this was being recorded and he or she would hear it?’ That is always a good test in regards to watching what we say.

Another fault in the Third Mansion is jealousy of other people’s spiritual gifts, subtly seeking’s ambition, wanting to be the Formation Director, wanting to be on the Council, wanting these positions of authority or prestige. It’ not that those positions are bad but as Saint John of the Cross would say, it’s the desire for them, when we want them – that’s not a good sign.

One of the remedies to get us out of these kinds of mental knots is to remember that it’s not all about you. We can easily get stuck in ourselves.

SOURCE: Teresa 5, Copyright 2018, Father Robert Barcelos, OCD