Lenten Season

WINTER NIGHT

Dark cold air touches my skin

not biting, but still cold.

Stars glide slowly through the heavens

some twinkling – others steady.

Moon has not visited us tonight -

may not come.

Darkness - cold touch me more deeply –

stirring memories of my travels on earth –

my pilgrimage.

My feet are weary – hurt from many blisters -

memories of dreams not fulfilled -

wanting to love but not being able -

not extending a helping hand when I should have.

My feet hurt from the sounds - bombs of war –

tears - cries of injustice

these push me to the floor - I feel helpless.

When will it ever end?  If ever!

But I am not alone –

someone baths - washes my feet with warm water.

My Beloved is present – in the cold night – in the silence

I feel his presence.

He speaks in silence - in darkness –

touches my center –

touch to heal my memories that hurt -

touch giving me confidence in the whirlwind of the world.

Darkness of the evening is not complete –

my Beloved is in the light of dawn that always comes –

Come, Lord Jesus!

Robert Trabold

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FORGIVENESS WORKSHOP

Robert Trabold

            Fr. Carl Arrico led a day’s workshop on the forgiveness prayer on January 24, 2009 in West Islip.  He opened with some introductory remarks about the whole process of forgiving other people. It is a question of whom to forgive and how to forgive them. Over the years, we have memories of hurts and resentments of people who have hurt and did injustices to us. These memories can wear us down and be a burden to us. Forgiveness is a process where we free ourselves from these memories and become a new creation.

            Forgiveness is a complex and difficult process. It is important for us to realize that it is a divine gift, that is, we need God to do it. It is a moment of love in which we uncover the truth of our nature; we are weak and human but have a potential in Christ. In this process, our free will is important; we have to consent to forgive. We have the ability to choose in life and define our being. Forgiveness is an important element in our Christian life because Jesus asks us to be forgiving like our Father in heaven is.

            In the prayer, ‘Our Father,’ we say “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We ask God to loosen the cords of our mistakes that are binding us as we also try to release the bonds of other people’s offenses to us. God should forgive our hidden past and secrets and we need to be honest about we did. We try then to let go of what other people did to us. We do not deny that we were hurt and do feel this. We need to cooperate with God in this action of forgiveness and consent to the divine’s action working within us.

            The speaker stressed that the process of forgiveness has four key elements. First, it is not a one time deal but a way of life – a process. There are things of life we have to let go of. Two, in the journey of our life, we grow in the realization that people cannot give to us all that we expect from them. Three, only God loves us unconditionally and other humans cannot do this. Four, with the exception of the case of child abuse in early childhood, if we have problems with others, we most probably have contributed to it.

            In the final session of the day, the speaker led the group through the steps of the prayer of forgiveness by Mary Mzrowski. First, we opened with silence and a time for centering prayer. Second, we were asked to close our eyes and become aware of our body and relax in each part of it. We focused on our breathing and felt it close to our heart. Third, we then went into the center of our person – that sacred space within us – our still point and invited the Holy Spirit to enter this interior place. Four, we then asked the Holy Spirit to call and invite into our inner space the person, either living or dead, we wanted

to forgive. Five, as the person entered into our sacred space, we called him/her by name and then shared the pain we have experienced due to the person offenses and injustices to us. We need to be very specific about this and be open in this sharing. At the appropriate time, we told that person that we do forgive him/her and if needed, repeated this. Six, we then went on to ask the person how we might have offended and hurt him/her. We then waited and listened how the person responded to us. We have to remain open in this whole process, repeating the words of our forgiveness if necessary and remain aware of our feelings and emotions. The Holy Spirit is active to heal us of these conflicts and give us a peace which comes with this gesture of forgiveness. Seven, we allowed the person to leave our sacred and inner space and invited him/her to return at another time if needed. We then rested in silence and spent as much time as needed for this. We then moved out of our sacred and inner space going through the door and felt our whole body in this motion of exit. Finally, we opened our eyes and closed the session with a prayer.

            In conclusion, the workshop of forgiveness was a day of listening to the importance of this virtue in our Christian life. Its roots lie in the prayer ‘Our Father’ and the Parable of the Prodigal Son of the gospels. In the parable, the father waited for his son to return and received him with open arms running to embrace him when he saw him in the distance. God our Father does this to us each day of our life and to the men and women around us in the world. In the prayer ‘Our Father,’ Jesus asks us to give to others the forgiveness that we receive daily from the Father. In going through the prayer of forgiveness, we did experience the power of the Spirit within us encouraging us to repeat this prayer when necessary in our lives. We then can grow in the process of forgiveness, give it to the people who offended us and experience the peace that comes from this act.

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Always Beginners

MYSTERY

Great South Bay – spreading – vast

before my eyes – gentle blue – grey.

Afternoon sunshine – painting a

silver path across the water – glistening – jewels.

Fire Island Lighthouse – tall in the distance –

flashing light winking at me.

Robert Moses tower – strong against the sky –

wind will not blow it down.

Fire Island – just laying there –

not making a sound.

Endless quiet – endless blue – endless mystery!

I breath in and out – vibrations deep within me –

pulsing – blood rushing –

my eyes – blinded – flashes of mystery –

I cannot see – but feel.

I reach out – hands - arms –

but cannot grasp.

Heart beats faster – sensing

mystery – ecstatic nothingness –

tasting the Beloved!

Strange Beloved – so close – so far away!

My Beloved grasps me – I feel it deep within me.

For a moment, I am lifted high – into the clouds –

vast blue sky –

no words come to me.

 Let me not forget –God speaks in silence –

let me be silent too –silence meets silence.

Today at the seashore – knock

at the door – I opened –

no one was there. That is the way it is –

life’s journey on earth – gentle touches –

another day – face to face.

Robert Trabold

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                                                      ALWAYS A BEGINNER

                                                               Robert Trabold

                                                         I sleep but my heart wakes.

                                            I hear my beloved who knocks at the door.

                                                           Song of Songs, 5.3

           

In our journey in contemplative prayer and way, we will always be beginners.  In this path, God who is a mystery touches us and reveals himself/herself to us. We sense this presence within our life being quite distinct and different because the divine is present at our center and still point  We also realize that it is a mystery and totally transcendent to us.  Because God is present at the core of our person, we feel that he/she is closer to us than we are to ourselves. This intimacy and closeness goes beyond the kind of relationships we have in human friendship or in a good marriage where the other person is always external to us.  For this reason, it takes a while to realize the deep intimacy we have with the transcendent.  On the other hand, this presence within us is a mystery because with time, we realize that we cannot grasp God with our mind or intellect. We touch the divine rather by our desire to love and to grow in friendship. Because this relationship is such an intimate but a mysterious one, many of the mystics, prominently John of the Cross, have used the image of the dark night to capture its uniqueness.  In the contemplative path, we are on a journey of great intimacy but since God is ineffable, we journey in mystery and in darkness. The opening lines of the poem ‘The Dark Night’ by John of the Cross state this well:

                                                                       In a dark night,

                                                            inflamed with passions of love

           If we look at our contemplative path carefully, we will see that we are always beginners for a variety of reasons. First, in contemplative prayer, it is the divine who takes the initiative and touches us to reveal its presence. It is something that we cannot automatically bring into our life, but have to wait until someday our Beloved touches us and makes himself/herself known.  John of the Cross in giving advice for growth in contemplative prayer mentions that we have to be silent and listen so that we can see where the divine is leading us and revealing itself to us.

            Secondly, we are always beginners in the contemplative path because we are journeying into mystery and trying to have a relationship with God who is transcendent to us. In this journey, we come to realize that the divine reveals itself in silence and darkness. Mystical writers mention that we are touched when we are silent and quiet.  In this, we know that he/she is there and we are at peace with this presence. Our desire to love grows with this encounter and that is how we touch God deeply in our life. But this touch is always mysterious because our Beloved is transcendent and ineffable and meets us fittingly in silence and darkness. A saying in German states that the works of God are ones of stillness and the night. In this encounter, words can get in the way.  Meister Eckhardt tells us that more we think that we know about the divine, the less we know.

            In sum, in our contemplative path and prayer, we are always beginners.  We are waiting for the divine to touch us and reveal itself; this is not our initiative.  It is a mysterious encounter because we know that we can never grasp God with our minds but can touch him/her by our desire to love. So as John of Cross mentions, we have to be silent and listen.  We are always beginning and growing in this friendship and are on a journey without end.

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New Year 2012

SILENCE – NEW YEAR 2012

Looking at the seashore – October

weather for end of December.

Seashore is silent – no one around –

perhaps lone man walking on the beach.

Sunshine is full – takes chill

from gentle breeze.

All is silent – quiet – touching even

my bones – covers me – surrounds me.

Silence of the sea – Silence of God!

Someone is knocking at the door –

mystery.

Our world is not silent – injustices –

violence – wars blare out noise –

overwhelming us – surrounding

us with endless lies – cover-ups.

We are winning wars over

millions of dead bodies.

I do not know the answer to the

violence of the world.

I hear it – suffer under it.

So let silence touch me –

silence of the sea - silence of God.

Let me not give up hope –

Silence of the sea is mysterious –

life is a mystery

but God is there –

in the silence – in the noise.

World – its troubles are beyond me.

Silence of the sea warps around me –

mysterious hand of God – clasping me –

giving me hope despite it all.

Robert Trabold

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NEW YEAR - 2012

Robert Trabold

            As we come to the end of December and celebrate the season of Christmas, we realize that we are closing another year. At first, we wonder where the year went because time goes by quickly as we are busy with the many things of our life. We begin a new year which most probably will go also very quickly. With this passing and going of time, we might take a moment to reflect on our life to see where it went in the old year and where we might want it to go in the next one. Our life is filled with many things – some good, others of doubtful value. The challenge is to sort these things out and get a clear vision of where our life should go.  As contemplative people who strive to meditate twice a day for twenty minutes, this discipline helps us enter into a deeper level of life and so find the values and ways to live in an authentic God like way.

            In our inward journey of contemplation, we are making a journey to encounter the divine at our center and still point.  We do not look outside for this meeting but within us. In our prayer, we are touching someone who is beyond us but also within us and ultimately is the ground of our being. In meditation, we are stepping back from the many activities of our daily living and focusing our attention on an invisible world. We are building a relationship with the divine who grasps us and becomes the center of our life. In this inner journey, we feel that someone loves us and wants us to respond with reciprocal love on our part. John Main, the great spiritual teacher, mentions that we are called to a purity of heart, that is, a heart that focuses its attention on the divine and attempts to orientate the person’s life around this call and response to love. Being faithful to our daily discipline of meditation, we will grow in understanding of what is essential in our life and what should be discarded. Jesus is the teacher who will lead us on. This journey to purity of heart is difficult, because we are human beings and our lives are shot through with selfishness and pride.  This is the baggage of our human life and we have to carry it through the years but need to be faithful in our struggle to overcome these human characteristics and attempt to focus on the way of selfless love to which Jesus calls us. In this struggle and inward journey, we realize that the treasure that we are looking for is within us and the divine offers us its hand to lead us on this trip of friendship and love.

            In this inward journey to touch God at our center and still point, we develop a discipline of silence so that we focus our attention on the divine within us. We arrange our day so that we can find time to meditate twice for twenty minutes. We set up a still place in our house where we can pray and chose the posture that is helpful.  In this quiet time, we repeat the mantra, a word, bringing us into the world of the divine and helping us touch our beloved Lord. It is important that we realize that meditation is not thinking about God and trying to penetrate this mystery with new theories and theologies. In a real sense, we leave behind our thoughts and analysis of the divine, desires and images of it and sit in the presence of the Lord who loves and calls us. It is a mysterious journey because our life is filled with many things and activities. Here we are called to be silent, just ‘do nothing’ and meet the Lord who is calling us. We are meeting the ground of our being who wants us to orientate our life around this invitation of reciprocal love. We find the real focus of our life around which we can orientate and place correctly the other things that come into and are in our path.

            As we begin the New Year, let us as contemplatives try to realize more deeply the nature of the inward journey that we are on. It is not one of many words and thoughts but a trip that is much deeper and beyond words and desires.  It is a trip to touch the presence of the divine in stillness and quiet at our center which is the most intimate relationship we can have as humans.  No other person can be so close to us as the Lord within us. Silence is the language of God and this is how the divine calls us in meditation. The New Year will have its many challenges, personal and those of the world, but if we are grounded in our inward journey to the Lord, we will navigate these waters with their turbulence and be grounded in the divine. So the New Year will bring opportunities to grow in this relationship and we should use these days of the closing of the old year and the beginning of the new one to deepen our understanding and commitment to this inward journey to the divine.

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Christmas

CHRISTMAS EVE VESPERS

Wintry day – low heavy

clouds pour rain down on the city –

winds are sharp at times –

luckily – rain washes away snow - sloppy ice –

heaviness hangs over all.

I feel it but it is not the whole story –

tomorrow is Someone’s birthday –

light shines in the night.

Darkness touches our world –

Wall Street collapse – scandals – unemployment

endless wars - more to come.

Eagerly, I look for the light –

Christmas vespers – boys’ and men’s choirs –

powerful organ – incense –

song - music wash over me.

I feel limp – I grasp out for

 hope the birthday brings.

My heart beats – chest is tight –

tears fill my eyes –

tears that await hope to dry them.

Music - voices give me a glimpse of

another world – Jesus is born –

not to leave us alone –

despite it all, warm hands embrace us.

Robert Trabold

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COMING OF CHRISTMAS

Robert Trabold

            As the year comes to a close in a short time, we come to celebrate the lovely feast of Christmas. It is a time of much activity with people and society but it should also be time of prayer and reflection so that we can savor and take fruit from the advent of Jesus on earth.  This reflection on the meaning of Christmas is important for us because we feel down with all the problems in our contemporary world and country. Jesus came to bring peace but when we look around us, we see too many wars that never seem to end. Politicians before the election say that they want to stop the fighting but when they get into office, there is little action taken to bring peace and end the conflicts.  We are also worried by the many economic problems that plague our country, the recession, unemployment, foreclosures, inordinate power of banks and large corporations on the policies of our land, etc.  So all of these things lay on us and we wonder where all of this is to go and we do not see things getting better in the near future. 

            So in face of all this darkness, it is important for us to reflect on the coming of Christmas and what it means to us and our world. Those of us in the contemplative prayer movements should be faithful to our daily contemplation and see what the divine will reveal to us in the coming weeks.  We live in the flux of our daily life on earth with its many activities and obligations.  These can be very demanding and take much of our attention.  But with our discipline of silence where we take 20 minutes twice daily to meditate in silence, we put ourselves into contact with the spiritual world which is our strength and orientates us to live in the world. In our silent prayer, we calm down and repeat the mantra.  In the quiet and apparent nothingness, we have an encounter with the divine who is the ground of our being. It is also a meeting of love where the Lord calls us to respond faithfully to his invitation and wanting our friendship. God does not want to abandon us in the world with its many problems and confusion but calls us to a relationship which is like a rudder on a ship. The Lord wants to guide us in a friendship which will get us through life despite all of the difficulties.

            In the Christmas season, we have a special revelation of the divine entering our life and the world. Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Palestine many years ago and still is present in our lives and the world. He was a good man who preached and healed people in the villages and towns of his time. He died an unjust death but continues to be present and alive in the world and our lives as the Risen Lord. In the Christmas story, we see all the details of his birth and the reaction of the shepherds and the three kings to his coming. It is an amazing story of the divine manifesting its presence in the world and it touches us to this very day. The beautiful story of Christmas helps us in our meditation because we understand more deeply whom are we meeting in the silence of our contemplative prayer.

            In the silence of our meditation, we encounter a presence who calls us and who is infinite love.  God does not want to abandon us to the comings and goings of a human life and our relationship with the divine in an anchor of our life and opens up for us new vistas of living.  God is love and offers this to all men and women.  Our life is only complete when we feel that some one loves us on earth and will walk with us during the years.  If we are faithful to our daily meditation, we will grow in the awareness of how the divine loves us and asks us to respond. This relationship then is the foundation of our life as no other human being or object can be. People and events of our years of earth come and go but the Lord is always there waiting for us to meet him on our silent meditation. We have a lover who chases us in the world and wants to be close to us. The divine offers us a faithful love that will never fail and in a way that no other human person can do for us.

            This vision of such an overflowing divine love for us is what becomes very manifest in the beautiful Christmas season.  Jesus, the Savior, becomes visible and in him, we see that love of God coming out of the darkness and into the light of the world. In Jesus, we can touch and see the spiritual life that is offered to us.  This manifestation now of his presence and advent should give us hope as we close this year and look forward to the new one.  We feel every day the problems and tensions of our contemporary world and country. Many times, we feel discouraged and do not know where it will all go. Endless wars, unemployment, foreclosures, corruption and greed in our government, banks and corporations, etc, overwhelm us.  Where do we turn? We have to turn to the Jesus who meets us each day in our daily meditation and who loves us and our world. He is the source of hope. He will not forget us and comes each year in the Christmas season. Let us not lose the opportunity to meet him in this lovely time.

           

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Contemplative Life Style

EVENING HUSH

Gentle summer air – comfortable

not hot – colors tone down –

sunshine has gone – I hear

the final chirps of the birds in the trees.

Like a cat walking on freshly cut grass –

stillness descends on all –

no wind to disturb the calm.

It was a long day – too many chores –

aching feet – e-mails – telephone calls

decisions to be made.

Welcome relief to sit in the quiet!

I let it roll over my whole body –

deep sedative –

calm takes me over – even my

feet do not ache so much.

I look forward to this hour –

time for a visit.

Garden’s hush opens up

an abyss at my center – still point.

Someone touches me – mystery – otherness.

No words are spoken – silence

is the language of God –

silence - calm – hushed garden –

usher me into a presence –

presence of my Beloved.

Let me rest in this quiet –

visit – gift – that puts a beautiful

end to a hectic day.

Someone is with me – that is all that matters!

Robert Trabold

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CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE STYLE

Robert Trabold

           

            Since I am in now a stage of semi-retirement, space has opened up for me to build a more contemplative dimension into my life. I have had this element for many years becoming pronounced in my college years. Now however, with my schedule opening up and my time not so constricted by a work routine, I have attempted to build time and activities to allow me to enter more deeply into contemplative prayer. This new freedom has allowed me to meditate twice a day for twenty minutes each time. I have created a small corner of the house with a statue and pictures which give me a sense of peace to enter into a spirit of prayer. I play soft mystical music in the background helping me calm down. I have a large garden connected with my house and in the warm season, I meditate there. The quiet and beauty of the flowers help me focus on the presence of God within me. Luckily, I live not far away from the seashore at Jones Beach and I go there once or twice a week immersing myself in the silence and beauty of the ocean side allowing me to experience the presence of God. Important also is spiritual reading.  I try to keep my eyes open for good books on spirituality and contemplative prayer helping me understand better the dynamics of prayer and the intimacy that God calls me to and motivating me to be faithful with the spiritual routine despite the periods of dryness that inevitably come.

            I am active in the Centering Prayer Movement and the John Main Meditation Movement giving me opportunities to pray with others in group sessions and share with them. This is very encouraging because prayer has times of dryness and we wonder where we are going – back or forward. Talking with these movement people allows me to discuss contemplative spirituality and this sharing is an enriching experience. It deepens my understanding of the spiritual journey we are on. I write contemplative poetry and articles on spirituality. I have done extensive reading in mystical prayer and the writing of articles on this topic allows me to share this knowledge with the people who read the spiritual magazines and newsletters that print my material. The writing of contemplative poetry has helped me deepen my grasp of the prayer experience. Since much of my poetry is deals with the experience of the presence of the divine within me and in my encounter with it in nature, such as the garden and the seashore, the process of writing the poems helps me grasp better the encounter that I had with God. I try to put into words, images, symbols, etc, the closeness and intimacy I felt in prayer.

            Our contemplative prayer life should also encourage us to express itself in service to the people around us. For a good deal of my life, I have been a social activist participating in various social movements. I live in New York City and am the head of a local neighborhood organization which I founded to control overdevelopment and so keep the quality of life we would like to have. For many years, I have been active in various peace movements working to resolve and end wars around the globe and particularly right now in the Middle East. I go regularly to meetings at the Catholic Worker Movement in Manhattan discussing social issues and encouraging us all to be active in these. Meetings at the Catholic Worker are supportive because our contemporary world has many social and economic problems and at times, one feels like giving up. The whole world looks hopeless. At this point, I feel my contemplative prayer is very helpful; I get the strength and commitment to continue to be of service to the world and people in these social movements. God gives us the strength not to give up and to work for the greater justice and peace that Jesus promises to give us.

            Another dimension of my contemplative apostolate is the reading of my poetry at various events where poets are invited to present their writings. At times, I feel self conscious because not many people write and read contemplative poetry to a secular audience. I have found to my surprise that people do respond positively to my writing and perhaps encouraging them to grow in their quest for God. One good sign is that the literary journals of these local groups publish my poetry. Hopefully then, the people who read these journals will be touched by my writings.

            In conclusion, we contemplatives are on an inward journey to encounter God at our center and still point. I have tried to develop a discipline of silence in my life so as to find space for and grow in contemplative prayer. I am hopeful that it will give me the strength and perseverance to continue to be active in various social movements giving our world more justice and peace.

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Watchman in the Night

ENDLESS LONGING

Violent day – sharp ocean winds

blow all around me – shaking up

the world.

Not too cold – end of March –

I hear spring tip toeing in.

Despite the wind, sun is strong –

even warm –

getting closer to us.

Gentle warmth comforts my body.

I whisper:

“For you alone, my soul waits in silence.”

Words ring deep within me –

word ‘waits’ shoots an arrow

through my heart –

deep pain - fires of desire.

Violence of the seashore – savage beauty –

give me a taste – touch of my Beloved –

arouse pains of desire.

I cannot run to grasp my Beloved –

not possible for my life on earth.

I have to be content with fleeting tastes –

soft touches.

Violent seashore echoes like wild drumbeats –

going deep – vibrating through my

whole body.

Let them touch me deeply –

full embrace – another day – time!

Robert Trabold

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                                                       WATCHMEN IN THE NIGHT:

                                                       OUR CONTEMPLATIVE PATH

“My soul longs for the Lord more than

the watchman waits for the dawn.”

                    Ps. 129

Robert Trabold

            . In the Old Testament, the psalmist mentions that his soul yearns for the Lord more than the watchman waiting for the dawn. Watchmen, the security guards of the ancient cities, made their rounds in the night and were happy when the dawn came to end their work. On examining the events surrounding Jesus’ birth, we note that many important things happened at night.  The shepherds were tending their flocks and the angels announced to them the birth of a savior. Then, a choir of angels appeared and sang praises to the newborn. The shepherds went to the town of Bethlehem to visit the family with the child. The Magi, also, watched the stars in the night and then followed the special one in the darkness until it led them to Bethlehem

            I have been attracted by the phrase “watchmen in the night” as capturing the meaning of the contemplative path God calls us to. It points to the mystery of this encounter since God is transcendent and an ineffable presence in our life. Our contemplative life is a response to this meeting. As John of the Cross mentions, in the dark night, God has us lose many attractions we have for our human activities, such as work, recreation, art, etc, and we are drawn to a peaceful resting in the divine presence. It is not something that we have control over but gently touches us to want to be with the divine. This presence is different from others because we sense it at our deepest core – at our center. For this reason, there is no one so close to us as God. On the other hand, in other relationships such as friendship or marriage, the other person is always opposite to us.

            For all the above, contemplatives are called to grow in their inward journey and be sign to others who are also called to discover this way of interiority.  The mystics that are popular in history are ones often who have left behind writings and exemplary lives showing us the way to God.  John of the Cross’ beautiful poetry and the autobiographical and spiritual writings of Theresa of Avila are examples. By reading these works, we can get an insight into their interior life helping us on our path.

            Contemplatives living out their inward journey are a sign and ask a question to the world around them. Humans are busy with their life of work, family, education, etc. and the contemplative path being one of silence and interiority presents another dimension of life. It raises the issue of the ultimate meaning of our journey on earth with its contingency and temporality. The contemplative path points to a presence within us which is the ground of our being and the goal of our life on earth. We can be so busy in life with every day affairs that we lose sight of this or never discover it. It takes a reorientation of our life to become aware of this presence and make those changes so that we can grow in a relationship with it. God is not only present within us but also is active in the world and in the lives of all people. In beginning our journey inward, we will grow in sensitivity to the divine actions in the world. We are social animals living in societies with other people and need to realize how God is active in these groups making them more just and peaceful.

            Contemplatives are examples of ‘watchmen in the night’ signaling others to join them in this interior journey. As Psalm 129 says, “My soul longs for God more than the watchman waits for the dawn.” It is a difficult journey demanding changes within ourselves so that we can be ready to meet the absolute; we humans are selfish and proud and these are obstacles to growth in union with the Transcendent. In the contemplative path, God takes the initiative to meet and touch us and we have to sit in silence and listen and wait to see how the divine reveals itself and woos us into a mutual love.  We are not in control but the Lord will do it in his own way and time.

            As I mentioned in the title, contemplatives are ‘watchmen in the night.’ They live in silence and a presence hopefully helping others to be aware of a light and love within themselves. This presence of God who is transcendent but also so close to us as no one else is a mystery and so our relationship with the Absolute is in the night. As long as we live on earth, we will not possess our Beloved but only touch and taste the divine. For this reason, John of the Cross in his beautiful poem ‘In the Dark Night’ has to two lovers meeting each other in the night full of mystery and desire.

In a dark night,

burning with fires of love!

“I will seduce my love, lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.”

                                                                          Hosea, 2, 16.