Secret Harbour - Portus Secretioris: Wholly Dedicated to Contemplation

06 August 2011

Wholly Dedicated to Contemplation

Dear readers of Secret Harbour - Portus Secretioris, in remembrance of today’s Feast please offer a prayer for the monks of the Carthusian Charterhouse of the Transfiguration in Vermont. Thank you! Here’s a brief meditation on the Transfiguration provided by the Carthusians:

"Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them" (Mark, 9:2-3).

The Transfiguration of the Lord contains all the constitutive elements of Christian contemplation.

Jesus climbs up a mountain to pray, and He takes Peter, James and John with Him.

Suddenly, as He is praying, He is transfigured. (Matthew 17:2; Luke 9:29; Mark 9:2). Before Jesus looked like a man, now He is manifested as God-Man. His Face is still human, but now it now reflects His divinity. His clothes shed intense pure light. Peter, James and John do not see this with their ordinary vision: only their illumined eyes can see the resplendent Glory of the Father (Luke 9:32).

They are awe-struck. Then a cloud comes over and a Voice declares: "This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him." With these words, the Transfiguration ends and they go down the mountain again.

The Transfiguration of the Lord allows us to contemplate, not only the Mystery of Jesus, but also our own mystery. Prayer and contemplation, lived in pure faith during this life, are the beginning of our own Transfiguration.

The Carthusian monk is wholly dedicated to contemplation: sustained by the scriptures, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit led into the depths of his heart, the monk experiences in some sort the incomparable Beauty of the Light of God radiating from Christ.

"Beloved, we now are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is" (1 John 3:2).

(Latin)
Credo firmiter in Patrem et Filium et Spiritum Sanctum: Patrem ingenitum, Filium unigenitum, Spiritum Sanctum ex utroque procedentem; et has tres Personas unum Deum.

Credo quod idem Dei Filius conceptus sit de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine. Credo quod Virgo castissima fuerat ante partum, virgo in partu, et post partum virgo in æternum permansit. Credo quod idem Dei Filius conceptus sit inter homines ut verus homo sine peccato. Credo quod idem Dei Filius invidiose captus est a Iudæis, injuriose tractatus, injuste ligatus, consputus, flagellatus, mortuus, sepultus. Descendit ad inferos, ut captivos suos inde liberaret. Descendit propter redemptio nem nostram, et resurrexit, ascendit ad cœlos, inde venturus judicare vivos et mortuos.

Credo Sacramenta quæ catholica credit et veneratur Ecclesia, et nominatim quod consecratur in altari verum Corpus esse, veram Carnem et verum Sanguinem Domini nostri Iesu Christi, quem et nos accipimus in remissionem peccatorum nostrorum, in spem salutis æternæ. Credo carnis resurrectionem, vitam æternam.

Confiteor et credo sanctam atque ineffabilem Trinitatem, Patrem et Filium et Spiritum Sanctum, unum Deum naturalem, unius substantiæ, unius naturæ, unius maiestatis atque virtutis. Et Patrem quidem non genitum, non creatum, sed ingenitum profitemur. Ipse Pater a nullo originem ducit, ex quo et Filius nativitatem, et Spiritus Sanctus processionem accepit. Fons ipse igitur et origo est totius Divinitatis. Ipse quoque Pater, essentia quidem ineffabilis, substantia sua Filium genuit ineffabiliter, nec tamen aliud quam quod ipse est genuit, Deus Deum, lux lucem. Ab Ipso ergo est omnis paternitas in cœlo et in terra. Amen.

(English)
I firmly believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: the Father unbegotten, the only begotten Son, the Holy Spirit proceeding from them both; and I believe that these three Persons are but one God.

I believe that the same Son of God was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. I believe that the Virgin was chaste before she bore her Child, that she remained a Virgin while she bore her Child, and continued a Virgin ever after. I believe that the same Son of God was conceived among men, a true Man with no sin. I believe the same Son of God was captured by the hatred of some of the Jews who did not believe, was bound unjustly, covered with spittle, and scourged. I believe that He died, was buried, and descended into hell to free those of His who were held there. He descended for our redemption, He rose again, He ascended into heaven, and from there He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe also in the sacraments that the Church believes and holds in reverence, and especially that what has been consecrated on the altar is the true Flesh and the true Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we receive for the forgiveness of our sins and in the hope of eternal salvation. I believe in the resurrection of the flesh and everlasting life.

I acknowledge and believe the holy and ineffable Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to be but only one God, of only one substance, of only one nature, of only one majesty and power. We profess that the Father was neither begotten nor created but that He has begotten. The Father takes His origin from no one; of Him the Son is born and the Holy Spirit proceeds. He is the Source and Origin of all Divinity. And the Father, ineffable by His very nature, from His own substance has begotten the Son ineffably; but He has begotten nothing except what He is Himself: God has begotten God, Light has begotten Light, and it is from Him that all Fatherhood in heaven and on earth proceeds. Amen.