THOUGHTS AS WE APPROACH AUGUST 9
THE FEAST OF ST. TERESA BENEDICTA OF THE CROSS: EDITH STEIN
"This spiration of love is the Holy Spirit himself, who in the Father and the Son breathes out to (the soul) in this transformation in order to unite her to Himself" (St. John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle 39:3).
How can we understand 'spiration' as a way of transformation and how might we explain it to someone who wishes to grow in love of God and the Christian life?
St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) directs our seekings when she intertwines the concept of the "mystical night" with that of the "cosmic night." She teaches us that both are crucial for the soul's transformative journey into union with Christ through our offerings of our prayer and of our sufferings. When our souls are drawn into these "nights", the "spiration of love....the Holy Spirit Himself" ceaselessly breathes the love of Father and Son into our souls as He de-forms, re-forms and trans-forms our disordered spiritual life .
To understand 'spiration' as a way of transformation necessarily requires a statement concerning the meaning of the word 'spiration' within Catholic theology. This is almost impossible for a lay person to define in a book let alone in a sentence but even a feeble effort is appropriate.
The God of St. John of the Cross is Trinitarian.
God's act of Self-knowing generates the Son. The love of the Father and the Son, proceeding from a single spiration and a single substance results in the spiration of the Holy Spirit, third Person of the Most Holy Trinity (adapted from Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae).
Therefore, when the Spirit breathes, the Ruah of Father and Son breathe their single breath of unified love, never not creating, never not transforming, healing, beckoning, drawing all of creation into Self.
We might liken this endless act of God breathing His life and healing and knowledge of Himself into our souls to a sort of Mouth to mouth spiritual resuscitation, born from within, endlessly breathing Breath of Life into our soul, desiring to lift us in our sinfulness out of spiritual disorder into His own Life. His Breath becomes intermingled in ours, we become one, yet He always leaves our will and our identity as distinct and uniquely our own.
"Through the Spirit, Father and Son breathe out into the soul in order to unite her to Himself" (St. Elizabeth of the Trinity).
And in our union with the Divine Three, Their Desire becomes our desire ... we then long to breathe Him out to other.
"Spiration is the love of Spirit Lord," God, Ruah, breathing His continuous life-giving Breath into souls and into all of His creation. The Hearts of the Divine Three, Father, Son, breathing through the Holy Spirit, endlessly breathe into and pour Self into Self. The same Breath is breathed into us by the Spirit, the Breath of God.
We breathe the Breath of God.
Pere Marie Eugene's words silence us unto awe ... "He penetrates us and envelops us. There is not a molecule of our being where He is not; there is no movement of our members nor our faculties that He has not animated."
Just as Father and Son dialogue through the Spirit, that same Spirit draws us into Their communication teaches us their language, their language of love, total self-giving, goodness pouring itself into other. This awareness in itself is transformative. The humility of the Holy Trinity cannot but cause awe when we pray.
Our initial attempts to speak the language of the Divine Three may involve a great deal of stuttering. Our spiritual speech impediments can be gradually corrected. When we pray, the Holy Spirit will inspire us to find ways to identify our obstacles to becoming spiritually fluent. We humbly seek His Wisdom. And He begins to reveal to us the multitude of worldly attachments that keep us firmly rooted in self. Spirit Lord blesses us with a desire for detachment.
This invites us to meditate on how 'spiration' could be a way of transformation for our souls as well as for those whom we meet and who also want to be transformed into love of God. St Elizabeth of the Trinity desired to be transformed to resemble Christ. Spirit Lord empowered her to rest in the Heart of the Trinity and this was the means of that transformation for her.
"The Trinity dwells in my soul in order to transform me into Itself" (St. Elizabeth, Letter 185).
These are uplifting and encouraging and inspiring words for our soul and for us to share with others. Our Saint is telling us that it is the desire of the Trinity to transform our souls into Itself. When we pray about what means of transformation Spirit Lord may give us to begin to resemble the Savior, we can pray and beseech the Holy Spirit to breathe a profound desire in our soul for detachment from my self, to make a spacious place in our soul for the Trinity to enter, make a home in us, let us put His Name on our mailbox, give Him our house keys. And lovingly invite anyone who seeks Him to find Him in us and in everything we used to own that now belongs to Him.
As He breathes this gift ever more deeply into our soul, He empowers our own journey into transformation in Christ and to share this knowledge with other. On our soul's journey of descent into transformation, empowered by Spirit Lord, He never "imposes Himself from without" but rather, this transformation begins in and affects the interior of our soul alone.
In "Science of the Cross", Edith Stein describes painful experiences which will arise when the soul is being purified by God as He draws us ever closer to Himself. When we offer Him our will, the war against self rages. With His grace, we battle my fallen nature. With every new call to deeper surrender to His Will, we experience " loneliness, desolation and emptiness ... ( a cessation of ) ... my faculties, ...(fear) ...by threatening horrors." This is "mystical night" in the soul. The "nocturnal light" that pierces this darkness is God's Presence, a distant Beacon that never flickers but that endlessly lights the way.
The "cosmic night" described by St. Teresa Benedicta involves that other force which opposes the surrender of our soul and our desire for union of our will to God. This is the spirit of the world, coordinated and strategized by Satan, warring against all that seeks God. Spirit Lord blesses us with the same "nocturnal light" and illumines the outer world where horrors are concealed but which assault the soul. His grace makes clear their presence and their motive. The spirit of the world has no power against us except the power given to it by God, therefore, every painful and frightening life-circumstances which seeks to damage the soul has already been measured to our faith by God.
We endlessly pray the words of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face:
"Your lot indeed is a beautiful one, since Our Lord has chosen it for you, and has first touched with His own Lips the cup He holds out to yours."
Through the gifts of the Spirit, our soul and our prayer offerings are enriched in mystical understandings which reveal to us how this "outer world is given back to us entirely transformed." When the soul suffers the pains of its own sins, we can offer to willingly bear that pain for another who does not pray and does not do penance and who has separated themselves from God. In small acts of vicarious suffering/atonement He draws us into His Act of Redemption in the saving of that lost soul.
"God has imprisoned all in disobedience that He may have mercy on all" (Romans 11: 25, 30-36).
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