Whenever God is about to perform great things in the lives of His children, He often inserts them in a preparatory desert time —in holy solitude— alone with Him.
During this holy desert, God summons to retreat His beloved children in order to:
1. deeply speak of His love into their hearts
2. disclose His Heart with them
3. enable them to know the truth about themselves
4. seduce them, thus, with loving threads of unitive love.
Our holy desert fathers and mothers, and countless men and women throughout the ages ever since, have experienced this most lofty summons to the barrenness of divine courtship, the wilderness of divine betrothal, the desert of divine espousals…
«Therefore, I will now allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her» (Hosea 2:14).
St. Paul «the first hermit», the great St. Anthony, «father of monasticism», and the greatly unknown St. Alexander Akemites, «the father of perpetual canonical hours», are three great holy ones who magnanimously entered into this desert of divine espousals.
They will be our guides and holy aids as we too —like them, and with them (especially on their feast days)— enter fully into each day of this desert octave of deep love and recollected retreat, in loving response to God’s initiative for our hearts.
So, during this time of loving and holy desert retreat with the Beloved, we’ll commit to do the following monastic spiritual exercises:
1. Daily Mass and weekly confession
2. One hour of minimum personal prayer (preferably with the Eucharistic Lord exposed)
3. The daily prayer of Lauds, Vespers, and Compline from the Divine Office (with the nocturnal examination of conscience at Compline)
4. Following an eating regime of only three meals a day, without any snacks or eating anything between meals, and procuring that the midday meal is the most substantial and the other two are the lightest
5. Daily abstinence from desserts, sweets and goodies, any other drink other than water, and from adding anything to prepared food (except on Sundays and feasts of the Church)
6. Fasting on bread and water on Fridays and having a collation meal for breakfast on Wednesdays and Saturdays
7. Abstaining from all unnecessary worldly entertainment, (limiting yourself only to what you have to do for work, studies or apostolate) and, instead, watching, listening, or reading the holy materials provided daily
8. Abstaining, as much as possible, from all non-spiritual interactions with friends, family members, and work affairs, without of course truly necessary things. Instead of this, fostering holy fraternity with fellow retreatants.
Today, on the festival of St. Paul «the First Hermit», we commence our desert retreat:
1. Entrusting to him our journey with this short martyrology entrance:
«Memorial of Saint Paul, hermit, one of the first to embrace monastic life in the great anchorite movement of the Thebaid (today Egypt) with which the desert fathers brought about the organic beginning of the consecrated life of the Church. Due to the wonderful encounter recounted by Saint Jerome and the great esteem with which Saint Anthony reverenced him in his God-given abode deep in the desert, at the end of his days, at the age of 113, he is recognized and honored as “the first hermit” (IV century).»
2. Reading during our personal time of prayer half of his short life written by St. Jerome
3. And concluding our day in silence, after Compline, with a brief lectio divina of Hosea 2:14-15 and going to sleep with that Word in mind and heart.
Today, as we continue journeying with St. Paul «the First Hermit», we will perform the following:
1. Complete reading the second half of his short life written by St. Jerome
2. Do a longer lectio divina with Hosea 2:14-20 during our personal time of prayer with Jesus Hostia
«Therefore, I will now allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
From there I will give her her vineyards,
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she shall respond as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
On that day, says the Lord, you will call me, “My husband,” and no longer will you call me, “My Baal.” For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more. I will make for you a covenant on that day with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will take you for my wife in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord.»
3. Answer amply the discernment questions for today posted here. (Only I can and will read your sharings, so do not worry.)
Today, let us turn our eyes to Him Who preceded us into the desert and Who has also summoned us to it. In Him we shall see more clearly: the disclosing of the Heart of the Father in how he sees us, the working of the Spirit in carrying us to the wilderness, and the loving example of what are we to do in the desert after Jesus’ witness.
With that in mind and heart let us then commit to do the following:
1. Pray the Divine Mercy chaplet with outstretched arms in the form of a cross, preferably at the hour of mercy, thanking the Heart of the Father for His unfathomable mercy towards us in summoning us into the wildness of divine betrothal and begging Him for those away from Him who refuse to be led into the barrenness of divine courtship.
2. Do a deep and paused lectio divina with Mark 1:9-13 during our personal time of prayer with Jesus Hostia
«In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.»
3. Answer amply the discernment questions for today posted here.
Today, again, we shall turn our eyes to Him Who preceded us into the desert and, in it, definitely conquered temptation… and the tempter behind it.
With that in mind and heart let us then commit to do the following:
1. Do a deep and paused lectio divina with Matthew 4:1-11 during our personal time of prayer with Jesus Hostia
«Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,
‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
‘He will give his angels charge of you,’
and
‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Begone, Satan! for it is written,
‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’”
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him.»
2. Answer amply the discernment questions for today posted here.
Today, halfway through our desert retreat, like Jesus in his desert, we shall pay special attention to our human nature since it is there, in it, where the desert of divine espousals will take place.
Unlike Jesus —Who always had an uncorrupted humanity perfectly united, or «espoused», to his divine nature—, we have a fallen, corrupted nature which is longing to unite and «espouse» itself to the divinity God created us for in the beginning and Jesus attained for us in redemption. Jesus took upon Himself our humanity to give us His divinity: to «espouse» us according to the original plan Abba had for us since Adam and Eve.
With that in mind and heart, illumined by the Holy Spirit —Who led us to this desert of the divine espousals—, let us then commit to do the following:
1. Keeping in mind and heart yesterday’s lectio divina (Matthew 4:1-11) we shall meditate at length today, not so much upon temptation and the tempter but upon our fallen, corrupted nature, which although broken, cannot find rest and fulfillment but in perfect union and «possession» of God.
a) As our first point of meditation please contemplate our fallen nature with its triple concupiscence: the concupiscence of the flesh (which yearns for pleasure), the concupiscence of the eyes (which yearns for comfort and ease of life), and the pride of life (which yearns for self-autonomy and self-authority).
b) As our second point of meditation please ponder upon the remedy which Jesus gave us for this triple concupiscence (in the way He lived His immaculate humanity perfectly «espoused» to His divinity): He lived in perfect chastity to overcome the concupiscence of the flesh, He lived in actual poverty to overcome the concupiscence of the eyes, and He lived in perfect obedience —until death— to overcome the doomed pride of life. (You can easily see this in the way He conquered the three temptations in the holy pericope)
c) As our third point of meditation please dwell long in the greatest initiative of the divine courtship which fosters, propitiates, and brings to fulfillment the divine espousals between the soul and God —that is, the transforming union or mystical marriage— in perfect holiness: here on Earth in order to «possess» God, so to speak, for all eternity in Heaven.
2. Then, with all these holy things in mind, perhaps using the beautiful quote from St. Augustine’s confessions to spark things up, please write in your spiritual journal a personal colloquium to God, expressing your response to all things pondered upon. If desired, you may share your colloquium with me by sending it to this address.
«You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.» St. Augustine.
3. You may also want to hear and pray in song during the day with these multilingual Augustintian hymns on the matter.
Today, on the festival of St. Alexander Akemites, we continue our desert retreat:
1. Entrusting to him our holy stay and perseverance in the desert with this short martyrology entrance:
«Memorial of Saint Alexander, abbot, surnamed “Akemites”, “the sleepless one”, who, after abandoning his military career, retired to an eremitic life in Syria, until, after seven years, internally driven by evangelical zeal, he went out and burned a pagan temple, for which, put in prison, he miraculously achieved the conversion of the king. On his way back to the desert, as he ran into a band of robbers, he converted them as well and founded with them his first monastery and way of life of “laus perennis”. After several “mobile” monastic foundations and not a few difficulties, he finally rested holily in the Lord in the stable monastery of Gomon founded by him on the banks of the Bosphorus of Constantinople.» (c. 430).
2. Pleading him to aid us keep the inner hermitage of our soul —the heart (cf, Mt 15:19-20a)— holy and sacred, safeguarded in purity by our outer temple —our body (cf. 1 Cor 6:19)—, and lit up always in holy vigilance —sleeplessly (cf. Mt 26:41)— by the beacon of our reason, according to what the Holy Writ teaches us:
«For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a man.» Matthew 15:19-20a.
«Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own.» 1 Corinthians 6:19.
«Keep awake and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.» Matthew 26:41.
3. To conclude the meditation, we shall use the liturgical «Hymn of Praise» for his feast (enclosed below).
Please read the hymn slowly three times, letting it touch your heart and mind, and noting in your spiritual journal what happens within you —in your heart and mind— as you read it.
Then, if you want, you can share your annotations with me here.
«Venerable Alexander, saint of God,
Established the temple of the «Sleepless Ones» –holy monastery–
That in it, the Lord be glorified, hymned and magnified;
Concerning this holy monastery, the story is still related.
But brethren, even our heart the community of heaven is,
It is necessary in your heart to glorify the Living God,
In the heart, let sleepless prayer be counted,
As a flame, let unquenchable love stand,
With Grace let the Holy Spirit warm our hearts,
Let Christ, His words throughout our heart sow,
Let the Angels in that temple keep vigil day and night
Farther from us, farther from them, the furious ones let them hide.
Let the Holy Virgin emit with myrrh in that temple,
Together with Her, let the apostles and all of the saints throughout,
And all the chosen ones of God; glorious martyrs,
And all the virgins for the sake of Christ and all the hermits.
In the hearts, let the Liturgy be celebrated thusly
And sleeplessly magnify the wisdom of God.»
Today, as we are entering to the last «sprint days» of our desert retreat —after having encountered the loving call to the desert of divine espousals, the high dignity of our filial adoption in baptism, the nature of temptation, the triple concupiscence of our fallen human nature with its remedies, and the sacredness of our heart, body and reason— we shall turn our eyes to another aspect of the spiritual battle: the three enemies of the soul. They are: the flesh, the world, and the devil.
We already saw a bit of these enemies in the sacred pericope of the three temptations of Jesus (just as in those same temptations we could identify the triple concupiscence of our human nature). We also saw in that sacred pericope how Satan is the worst and strongest of these three enemies —who actually has certain power or dominion over the other two and can manipulate them, as «agents» of his over us.
So, today we shall deepen a bit more upon the nature of each enemy of the soul as well as upon God’s overabundant grace and mercy: both, when we allow grace and mercy to help us face and conquer these foes; and when, after running along, hand-in-hand with them falling in sin, we allow grace and mercy to restore us and redeem us.
In order to do that, we shall commit to do the following:
1. Please do a paused and alert lectio divina with Epeshians 2:1-7 as you recognize with gratitude in the reading your renewed current self in the desert of divine espousals:
«You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ —by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.»
2. Answer amply the discernment questions for today posted here.
Today, on the festival of the great St. Anthony of the Desert, we joyfully conclude our desert retreat by doing the following:
1. Entrusting to him the fruits of our time in the desert with this short martyrology entrance:
«Memorial of Saint Anthony, abbot, who, having lost his parents, distributed all his goods among the poor following the evangelical counsel and retired to the solitude of the Thebaid, in Egypt, where he led an ascetic life. He worked to strengthen the action of the Church, supported the confessors of the faith during the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian and supported Saint Athanasius against the Arians, and gathered so many disciples that he deserved to be considered the father of the monks» (356).
2. Asking him to help us persevere until death (in all teachings learned and all spiritual growth acquired during this desert of divine espousals) with the liturgical sequence «Pia Voce Prædicemus» for his feast:
«1a. Let us piously proclaim
the praises of Antony,
and celebrate his name in sacred hymns.
1b. Let us honour God’s Saint;
and God, the author of all,
be honoured in His Saints!
2a. Antony despised, in obedience to the Gospel,
the beauty, and riches,
and honours of the world.
2b. He fled into the desert,
that he might not run at an uncertainty,
in the race of this life.
3a. Wonderful was his life.
He was the celebrated hermit.
But, soon does the crafty enemy
3b. Wage war against him.
The combat is fierce and oft renewed:
but he is not vanquished by the devil's attacks.
4a. The demons scourge him with many blows,
and his flesh is cruelly torn
by the angry enemy.
4b. But, a light shone down from heaven;
and the sweet voice of God
was heard speaking from above:
5a. “Because thou hast bravely fought
in the combat,
thy name shall be published in every country.
5b. The whole earth shall proclaim thy glory.
Thou shalt be invoked against
the disease of the Fire.”
6a. This, O Antony!
we see fulfilled,
and the world resounds with thy name.
6b. The devout servants of God call on thy name,
and fervently pray to thee
for help and protection.
7a. Sometimes, again,
it is in the appearance of a beautiful woman,
and sometimes under the form of a piece of gold,
7b. That the devil lays snares for the holy man:
but, after all thy daring, O crafty tempter!
thou art defeated in the fight.
8a. Yea, vain are his thousand frauds and tricks;
and all hell falls back bemoaning
that one single-handed man has repelled them.
8b. Roaring with rage, the enemy trembles
before this veteran soldier,
whose hand so roughly deals its blows.
9a. The brave combatant resists
these mighty enemies,
and yet he wears no breast-plate such as soldiers use.
9b. His drink is water, his bed the ground;
these were his arms,
and by these he conquered.
10a. Herbs were his food;
the palm-leaf gave him raiment;
and his companions were the wild beasts of the wilderness.
10b. He restrained lust by assiduous prayer,
frequent labour,
and short sleep.
11a. He confutes the Arians
and the profane Philosophers;
he visits Paul the Hermit,
nor was the journey fruitless or vain;
11b. For he found him alive,
and then saw his holy
soul mounting up to heaven,
and buried his body.
12a. O Antony, thou art now in glory,
with the Blessed, in the kingdom of light;
show thy affectionate pity on us,
who are here weighed down by the burden of the flesh.
12b. Stretch out thy hand,
lest the death of terrible hell seize upon us.
Defend us from the burning distemper,
and assist us to gain heaven when our life is spent. Amen.»
3. Meditating our last lectio divina of this desert retreat spending a longer time with Mark 4:2-9 and answering its discernment questions here:
«He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” And he said, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”».