The Lord's Prayer: The Third Petition

Next is Hugh of Balma's explanation of the third petition in which he says that it “asks the most Blessed One not to limit” what has now been “perceived of Him, but that He mercifully make it known to all other sinners.”

FIAT VOLUNTAS TUA
“Thy will be done” is the third petition. The soul “does not truly love unless” it desires that everyone honors the Beloved, the soul’s great love. The soul asks that what it “experiences mercifully, be made known to other sinners.” In this way, He Who alone should “be worshipped and adored insatiably can, by revealing to sinners their sins… imparting to their spirits the spark of truth and the drop of reason that are found only by attaining Him.” Thus, “every tongue burning with that inner affection… makes it possible for a created spirit to converse with” the “Uncreated Spirit.” These souls will learn that the Beloved “confers on those who love Him and abandon earthly joys gifts far more precious than any they have given up.”

When one confesses that Jesus is in the glory of the Father, “the Father might by yearning love lift up in mercy the one who truly loves Him.” God will establish the loving soul “in the solitude of His Bosom” as He said through the prophet: “I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore have I drawn you, taking pity on you” (Jeremiah 31:3).

To say that “Thy will be done” as it is done in heaven mystically means “let Thy will be done firmly, steadily in motion, adorned with various lights,” so that on earth “Thy will be done in sinners… who are fixed in a region far from the fire whose cleansing burning lightens the soul” that it may “gain a heavenly dwelling-place.” Hugh continues by saying that “just as love is the cause by which the human spirit attains all good things in love, so the absence of love is the cause of all sin.” And so, “the sinner… is farther removed from the lightening presence of ignited love.” The anagogical meaning of guilt and sin can be explained “as an absence of love’s urgency… love’s absence is the occasion for every evil.” This doesn’t mean that it is lacking in the soul but that one’s lack of desire to have the Beloved’s Presence in their life will have them running “aimlessly down false paths” and “into all kinds of misery… It is not wrong to say that the soul deprived of love lacks every good thing, for… evil deeds separate” the soul from God.

Hugh of Balma: The Second Petition in the Lord's Prayer

Continuing with Hugh of Balma’s mystical reflection on the “Our Father,” next is the second petition which according to Hugh is made so that we “might not turn aside to leap over the boundaries of the rules of truth.”

ADVENIAT REGNUM TUUM
“The Kingdom of God is established on its lasting Throne in the soul.” In order for this to be so, however, “an ardent force of love” must prevail “in the spirit.” There has to be a dismissal of “the rebellion” of the excessive “inner senses” and by the power of this force of love, “all actions” are to be subjected to “the judgment of reason.” This is necessary in order that there is a striving “by every action to do what” has been “discerned to be more pleasing to the Beloved,” being subjected “entirely to the Beloved, through the light He radiates, recognizing in advance what pleases Him,” and then “carrying it out with discernment.” We “ought not seek” our “own interests,” but rather seek the interests of God. This is how God alone will reign in the soul. “In the end” it is fitting and right that the Creator alone should reside in His creation, the soul, by resting there. Thus, the soul “should be preserved intact under His rule,” and “find sweet refreshment in Him.” The prayer, “Thy Kingdom come” truly occurs when the soul “is seated under the shadow of the Most High.” The soul, “as far as human weakness permits”… “is completely consecrated to God and not at all subject to any creature.” When this is the will of the soul, the Kingdom is truly attained.

Hugh of Balma: The First Petition in the Lord's Prayer

This is the second post on Hugh of Balma’s anagogical or mystical explanation of the Lord’s Prayer. Let us take a look at the First Petition in this prayer given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ.

SANCTIFICETUR NOMEN TUUM
“Hallowed be Thy Name” is the first petition after “having gained good will” with the three commendations of God which begin this prayer. There are seven petitions total in this prayer: “the first four are requests to obtain something good, while the other three are requests for the removal of something bad.” The first petition of “hallowed be Thy Name” is for the purpose of “possessing the Beloved without contrary delay.” In the mystical sense “holy” means “apart from earth.” Thus “hallowed be Thy Name” means, “let Your wonderful Name be made apart from earth in me.” It’s quite beautiful to want the mystery, the wonder, the awe, the beauty and the love of Almighty God and His heaven to be evident within you – to exercise in this world the beauty of other worldliness.

Hugh of Balma adds: “The soul who lives wickedly, imbued with earthly desires and disfiguring worldly delights, is unable to see in love the serene tranquility of a heart full of joy or to sense anything else.” Such a soul is “being pulled by earthly horses” and is “carnal and not divine,” being compared scripturally to Egypt and what is written by the prophet: “Egypt is man, and not God” (Isaiah 31:3).

“On the other hand, the spirit of a lover can attain something of experiential, divine rejoicing when, fired up… reaches out” quite aware that disentanglement “from earthly affections” has yet to occur but knows that without God the strength to disentangle will be insufficient. Since a soul cannot “firmly possess two opposite things at once, being pulled down lower by the weight of corruptible flesh,” the soul must beg “the Beloved more insistently that He remove it.” Once the Beloved has fulfilled this pleading, “spiritual joy” will lay “bare the bitterness of former joys, and the inner ray of light, even if not revealed in perfect fullness, clearly exposes the… fraud and ugliness” of fleshly or worldly desires. What follows is that the soul will be “lightened by love’s fire and” will be “raised on High on the wings of affection.” Eventually, in astonishment the soul will be able to echo what is written in Sacred Scripture: “Truly You are a hidden God” (Isaiah 45:15). May God’s Name always be deemed as holy. “When the soul’s petition is heard and removed” from carnal desires, “marvelously the bride is presented to the Bridegroom, leaving them alone with each other.”

Hugh of Balma: The Lord's Prayer

It is prayed at every Mass; it is prayed in the Divine Office; it is prayed in the Rosary. It is prayed countless times privately and/or for personal intentions. It is the Lord’s Prayer. But how often do we attempt to raise our souls to understand the meaning of this prayer given to us by Him Who is Risen? Hugh of Balma, a thirteenth century Carthusian, invites us to examine this prayer through an anagogical lens, id est, a mystical interpretation of this prayer. And certainly our Lord Jesus Christ, the Giver of this prayer, would like nothing more than to elevate our souls and draw us to a more intimate union with Him. This first post looks at what Hugh of Balma refers to as the “three main commendations of the Beloved.”

PATER
Most minds when thinking of the word “Father,” as Hugh of Balma conveys, turn to the “literal sense” when a man “engenders a son” biologically. Turning towards “the anagogic sense,” however, means engendering “many sons adoptively, rather than naturally, from the seed of deifying love He has emitted.” He goes on to say that “this seed of deifying love gives perfect nativity to the human spirit.” In other words, this adoptive love is called deifying love because it says to the recipients: I choose you. And coming from Almighty God makes it a perfect choice. As chosen sons and daughters of God, Who “richly radiates life from on High” we can and should offer ourselves to Him because to those Who accept His love, He “mercifully shapes and forms… out of His Fatherly affection – until in the end” when we shall see “Him face to Face.” Hugh closes out this portion of his reflection by saying that “this is the hidden or mystical significance of saying ‘Father’ – for He is the Fountainhead of all life.”

NOSTER
“Next comes ‘Our’ which praises the outward sharing of… enclosed Goodness, as if one were to say, ‘By reason of Your widespread goodness, not only do You pay attention to individuals but You also do all You can to let Your radiance draw all rational spirits to Yourself.’” Thus God does not reach out only to a chosen few who have climbed to elevated levels on the spiritual ladder, for He loves us all equally and desires that even the willfully disobedient will come to know Him, love Him and experience His love. Those who have are the “rational spirits.” Hugh then continues with something we all know by calling God “the Fountain and Source of goodness.” This “is the thrust of ‘Our’ taken in an anagogic … uplifting sense.”

QUI ES IN CŒLIS
“Who art in heaven” is the next section. Hugh of Balma writes that “here goodwill is gained by reason of a surpassing and lofty dwelling-place.” He continues by sharing that “there are three ways that heaven excels other things: It is continually in motion, it remains steadfast and it is adorned with a variety of constellations shining brightly within it.” Looking at this mystically he says that “the bride,” or the Church, “should adorn herself with this threefold characteristic in the hidden storeroom of her heart as she converses with the Bridegroom in her chamber.” We as the Church are “steadfast” by acknowledging that God, “Who art in heaven,” dwells in us “in the present, potential and essential way” but also He inhabits “the inward bed-chamber of some human spirits,” meaning that He is “truly in Himself.” Id est, the Most Holy Trinity is “a guest Who brings rejoicing and comfort, making” Himself “at home with those who have given other vices and delights” the heave-ho “for the sake of gaining” His “love more effectively.” These human spirits “live in love, set free from hindrances by sighs and bonded to” our Lord “by the adhesive of gentlest love.” The love of these exceptional souls is “as strong in them as death.” These blessed souls are sustained “with affections that cannot be beaten back” because the Source of these affections is “the Beloved.”

Recap:
In the Lord's Prayer “Our Father Who art in heaven” are the “three main commendations of the Beloved.” First, as “Father” He is praised “as the Origin of complete and spiritual life.” Secondly, in “Our” God “widely diffuses His goodness.” And third, “Who art in heaven” is “the worth of His dwelling-place” and is commended “for so excellent a King would not deign to dwell except where there is a firm abode, or tabernacle, variously and suitably furnished on the inside.

Future posts, God willing, will look at Hugh of Balma’s mystical explanations of the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer.

The Baptism of the Lord

De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine.
The depths of the waters are not man’s natural habitat. He cannot breathe there; and if there for too long he will struggle and fight for his natural life. Saint Gregory Nazianzen explains that: “John baptizes, Jesus comes to him perhaps to sanctify the Baptist, but certainly to bury the whole of the old Adam in the water” (Oratio XXXIX, In Sancta Lumina). The man of sin, the man of eternal death is buried in the depths of the waters by the God Who became Man to restore man to his dignity, to his destiny of eternal life, his Paradise. In this natural struggle below the surface of the waters, man gets a glimpse at the possibility of death, he enters a state of panic, he stares at his own weakness, his own helplessness. The words of Jesus now echo in his heart and soul: “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). And when those words of our Lord are realized to be truer than true, the words of the psalmist come to the forefront: “Out of the depths I cry to You, Lord” (Psalm 129 [130]:1). For in the depths of the waters man cannot speak, but God hears the cries of the heart and soul, He hears man’s fearful silence.

Hic est Filius meus dilectus, in quo mihi complacui.
In baptism man is freed from his inevitable doom and pulled from the depths of the waters by Jesus Christ through His minister; he rises from the depths with Christ. And it is then that he meets the Most Blessed Trinity: Christ Who saved him from eternal death by pulling him out of the depths to a new life, a life that is eternal; the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove unseen by human eyes, but present nevertheless, Who descends upon him who has been saved and seals him as God’s very own; and finally the Voice of the Father, undetected by human ears, but nevertheless speaking those mysterious, incomprehensible words: “This is My beloved” (Matthew 3:17). It is perhaps foretold by the psalmist: "The Voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of majesty has thundered, the Lord is upon many waters. The Voice of the Lord is in power; the Voice of the Lord in magnificence" (Psalm 28 [29]:3-4). As unfathomable as those words are, let them speak within you every time you reflect on your own baptism, every time you witness a baptism, every time you try to understand your own royal dignity. It is no easier for the psalmist to grasp our filial relationship with our God as he writes: “What is man, that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You visit him? You have made him a little less than the angels, You have crowned him with glory and honor; and have set him over the works of your hands. You have subjected all things under his feet” (Psalm 8:5-8). In the Old Testament, there is a story of a baby which perhaps points us to that day of our own glorious baptism. That baby the world would come to know as Moses. As he was floating down the river in a basket he was seen by Pharaoh’s daughter. She took the baby and as the Scripture continues: “She adopted him for a son and called him Moses, saying, ‘Because I took him out of the water’” (Exodus 2:10).

Torrentem pertransivit anima nostra.
Christ has saved us, He has defeated the enemy. And for a final reflection on baptism I turn once again to the wisdom of the psalmist: “Our soul has passed through a torrent; perhaps our soul had passed through water insupportable. Blessed be the Lord Who has not given us to be a prey to their teeth. Our soul has been delivered as a sparrow out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken and we are delivered. Our help is in the Name of the Lord Who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 123 [124]:5-8).

Why We Must Pray

The reasons for praying are as numerous as they are imperative. They correspond to all our needs without exception, and to all occasions. They are also in accord with the favors we receive in answer to our prayers and to God's rights over His creatures.

Our divine Master's word has explored and lighted up everything, our human world and God's world. He revealed the powerlessness of the first when He said: “Without Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

We have read these words often enough, but without penetrating them. We no more understand the “Nothing” than we do the “All”. The nature of our being does not allow us to understand it. We do not look at our tiny being as it actually is in the light of the “All”. We do not compare the hours of our life, so short and transient, with God's changeless eternity. We do not see the place we occupy in the universe as compared to His immensity, which infinitely overflows our tiny universe, and could embrace numberless others, far greater than ours. Above all, we forget that our being is not ours. Moment by moment we receive the tiny drop of being that God designs to give us. The only reason we have it is because He gives it to us; and having received it, immediately it begins to dissolve; it slips through our fingers and is replaced by another which escapes us with the same rapidity. All this being comes from God and returns to Him; it depends upon Him alone. We are like vessels into which He pours that being drop by drop, so as to create a bond of dependence upon Him, whereby His Being is manifested and made known and, when lovingly welcomed, is glorified.

Prayer is this intelligent vessel, which knows, loves, thanks and glorifies. It says, in effect: My God, the present moment and the light by which I am aware of it, comes from You. My mind, which appreciates it; the upward leaping of my heart which responds to that recognition and thanks You for it; the living bond created by this moment -- all is from You. Everything comes from You. All that is within me, all that is not You; all created beings and their movements; my whole being and its activities all is from You. Without You nothing exists; apart from You is just nothingness; apart from Your Being there is merely non- existence.

How this complete dependence, upon which I have so often and so deeply meditated, ought to impress me! I feel that it plunges me into the depths of reality, into truth. Nevertheless, it does not completely express that reality. There was a time when this nothingness rose up in opposition to “Him Who is”. It wanted to be independent of Him; it put itself forward, refused to obey Him and cut itself off from Him. It made war on Him and became His enemy. It destroyed His Image in the heart's citadel where hitherto He had reigned, and usurped His Throne. These are only metaphors, and they do not do justice to the real horror of the plight created by sin; but we must be content with them, as they are all we have. We must remember, however, that they are completely inadequate.

And every day we add to this predicament, already so grave. Every personal sin of ours is an acceptance of this state: we choose it, we love it and prefer it to union with God. We lap up, as it were, these sins like water. We take pleasure in plunging into them as into a stream, the waters of which rise persistently, and in time overwhelm us and carry us away. They toss us about like a straw, and submerge us. Thoughts, feelings, words, really bad acts and innumerable omissions fill our days and nights, and intermingle, more or less consciously, with our every movement, and at all hours. They spoil the purity of our ordinary actions such as eating and drinking; they introduce themselves into our sleep and mix with our waking movements, and with our external acts as with our most intimate thoughts. Because of our fallen state, everything becomes matter and occasion to drag us down further into evil.

~Dom Augustin Guillerand (1877-1945)~

The Spirit of Prayer

It should not be difficult to withdraw from time to time from our ordinary preoccupations during the day to lift up our hearts to God, in accordance with the Psalmist's words: "It is good for me to adhere to my God" (Psalm 72 [73]:28). I can always turn to Him, and it is not even necessary to express my thoughts in words. An inward glance, an aspiration, is sufficient. And so gradually I will create for myself an interior solitude, where I can always listen to the Voice of the Beloved, as He Himself said: "I will lead her into a desert place apart, and will speak to her heart" (Hosea 2:14). And thus I will strive always more and more faithfully to listen to His Voice speaking to me: "I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me" (Psalm 84 [85]:9). When difficulties arise I will take refuge near Him: He will be my Light, and with Him I will share my joys. In a word, it is He Who will hold the first place in my heart and be the object of my actions. My life, hitherto centered around myself, will find its center in God alone.

~"The Prayer of Love and Silence" by a Carthusian~