TRANSCRIPT
(NOTE: This transcription has been automatically generated through an AI program. Consequently, this transcript may not match everything you hear in the podcast episode, and it may contain errors such as spelling, grammar, word choice, etc., due to the limitations of current AI technology.)
Hey everyone, welcome to this week’s episode of midnight Carmelite. So as you know, I am generally doing these releases when I feel like it’s necessary. There may be some breaks in the season now where you’ll have a bunch of episodes and then a break. There’s two reasons for that. The first reason is just kind of what I would like to release. I like to release things as I feel are fit, frankly, for the subject of the season, but also things may change. I want to adjust, or just sometimes I like to let things sit and people have time to really digest. So with that all said, let’s begin today. So I’m going to read a quote from St John cassians conferences, so chapter five. And you can, you know this is available online. You can go find it. It’s says here, for the mind which has no fixed point to which it may return and on which it may chiefly fasten, is sure to rove about from hour to hour and minute to minute and all sorts of wandering thoughts and from those things which come to it from outside to be constantly changed into that state which first offers itself to it. I kind of want to unpack this in the light of presence. We talk a lot about presence, and I kind of want to unpack this in the light of presence. So, so let’s start with so for the mind which has no fixed point to which it may return. So anyone knows this that we are easily distracted today, multitasking, in my opinion, as a as a way of understanding things. It can work, but you know, you’re not giving it your full focus. Or at least, if multitasking is an end, not a means to an end, then it could be problematic. The point being is that I think we need to remember that we want to have a way to deal with how we understand our our journey to the to the kingdom of God. In other words, we want to make sure that our sole focus is union with God and our spiritual sanctification, right? Theosis. So how do we, how do we approach this? Well, Cassian here seems to be saying that we need a fixed point. And, you know, I was really struck when I was reading it. This is why I’m podcasting about it. Is Cassian makes the point that, look, if, if you’re gonna have the kingdom of God as your as your life, as your point, you need an intermediate point to get there. So for example, if I’m driving from here to the grocery store, there are intermediate points in between I need to pass to get to the grocery store. Now, those are not the goal. My goal is the grocery store. But I need to aim at those points to go past, you know, go arrive at them, go past them, and, you know, keep going to the grocery store. And there’s an overarching intermediate point going between my house and the grocery store, and that’s driving, right? Because it’s far enough away. So anyway, so So what does that mean? So it means that we need to have driving be the intermediate goal. Meaning is I get in the car and drive somewhere, and the final goal is, I’m driving to the grocery store because I need to pick up food for myself and my wife, let’s say so back to back to the cassians take is for him. It’s purity of heart that’s driving the goal is the kingdom of God. So in other words, the activity is constantly purifying your heart. Blessed are the clean in heart, or Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. It’s this idea of of finding to remove these passions so that you can see God’s presence in your life. And that’s where it relates to presence, is that too often, what will happen is we will focus a lot on what we want, rather than what God wants for us. Now, again, this isn’t to say that it’s not a cooperative activity with God. God puts desires into our heart. No one’s no one’s denying that. What I’m saying is, is that, is that those desires come from God. They don’t, they’re not, or their origin isn’t us, because so as to be selfish, right? Like, if I say, Oh, I desire this, but it’s contrary to what God wants. It’s a selfish desire, and that’s pride, and you don’t want that. So how do we know, then that our desires are aligned with God? Well, that’s a big discussion. Obviously, I can’t do that in one single podcast episode, not even, I would argue, even when podcast season would adequately cover that topic. But I think one thing to start here, in relation to purity of heart is to identify things that casting talks about, calls them of secondary importance, identify things of secondary importance that you know, maybe you’re focusing too much on an X that create an excess or a defect such that you’re not being charitable, because, remember, charity is a virtue. So what would be an example? So Cassian mentions fasting, vigils, meditations on Scripture. Okay, let’s just take those three, because those are pretty easy. And let’s add, you know what? Let’s add the rosary too. Rosary. So devotion, so fastings, vigils, meditation, of Scripture and devotion. So let’s say that you’re having trouble doing your rosary because your kids need you, like, if for some reason, your normal time in the morning, like your kids are getting up for some reason, and you’re not able to pray your Rosary. some people would get angry at that. You’d say, oh, I need to pray my rosary. This is my spiritual food. And you’re right, the rosary, in and of itself, is good, but Cassian would say, but notice how you’re angry about it, and you’re not worried about your primary obligation of a charity, which is to your kids. And he would say, you probably you’re looking at the Rosary as an end rather than a means to the kingdom of God. And so if your customary rosary is being interrupted, then that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to get all worked up that you missed it when you were doing it, you were interrupted by virtue of the needs of charity, because that’s what’s going to keep you pure at heart. Because purity of heart is charity. So cassians point here, I think is powerful. I think I was very, very impacted by this. Again, this is John of the Cross. Talks about this. He talks about being detached nothing but God. You know, union with God is two, wills becoming one, where your soul is acting out of divine operation. When you reach spiritual marriage, like they’re both aligned, that they’re not not aligning. This is, this is the guy, where it comes from, as far as I can tell. So I think that this is really important here. This this thinking and something we need to think about. So how purity of heart relates to God’s presence to us. And I just want to make one more point before I conclude this. This episode, he says, We need to fashion on the on the chiefly fashion on the immediate end purity of heart and the final end kingdom of God. So we’re sure not to row from hour to hour, minute to minute, and all sorts of wandering thoughts. I mean, we’re all guilty of this. How many times are we wandering around trying to, you know? Oh, I’ve checked the news. Oh, go do this. Oh, what’s over here? No, someone said this in social media. We’re wandering. We’re not focused on God, and I think that’s so important to remember is to say, Well, wait a minute. Am I keeping my eye on my purity of heart? In other words, am I getting distracted by news or images or things that are going into my heart that are, you know, maybe causing you to be angry or worse, to like or maybe not worse. But you know what I mean to are just as bad, you know, inciting lust or inciting greed or inciting envy, like, like you could go through all the sins and and I think we, we’re kind of careless about it. So I think, in other words, purity of heart is not simply sitting around and and being passive. We have to be active in the sense of cutting things out and activities mainly this wandering instead of focusing. So I think this is a good place to stop for now, and I will see you next week.
How to learn more
To learn more about the Carmelite tradition in general, check out Midnight Carmelite episodes through the player below, and hit subscribe to stay up to date!