continue to think out loud and to answer certain doubts and things which come up in the course of these talks concerning the nature of our life. And yesterday I was speaking about the rough approaching of the three stages of the Christian living in the world, of the Christian living in the monastery and of the hermit. Three stages which were commonly accepted in the old church and still are. to the three stages of the development of the spiritual life that we usually distinguish the purgative life, the illuminative and the unitive life.

[01:04]

And one thing that I wanted to make clear to us is that of course such a separation does not mean that any one of these forms of life is completely devoid of the elements of the other form. That is just the very condition in which we live here on earth as pilgrims and which always keeps us as a matter of principle in the same humble condition and which is never we never reach the state of sinlessness of the impossibility to see which would be the Vita Unitiva in its fullness

[02:08]

that simply is in statu viae, is never reached. And therefore it always, every stage keeps the elements of the Vita Purgativa, Illuminativa, also their mythical life. And therefore it certainly is on purpose and deliberately that St. Benedict, speaking to his monks, and giving us the list of the instrumenta bonorum operum. Deliberati puts there things which may be astonishing to us and of which we think now somebody who is enters the monastery certainly is beyond the stage where we would be tempted to kill somebody else. But that is simply not true. And I think it's a very good way of reminding us of the abyss which is in every human soul.

[03:22]

There is always that who stands may see that he does not fall. And that is true in every direction. nil humanum nobis alienum est. Nothing that is in the realm of man is foreign to the one who has left the world and lives in the monastery. It is also in the other element that in each one of the stages actually a development is possible and takes place. I would say in this way that the Vita Unitae, the way in which, with the subtractions in which we understand it here as accessible to man, certainly elements of the Vita Unitae is not, let's put it this way, is not the exclusive domain of the hermits, perhaps.

[04:28]

That's very clear. In every stage, and that belongs again than yesterday to the very essence of the messianic age, where fullness of the Holy Spirit is poured out over the free ones and the slave, over the old ones and the young ones, and over the men and the women, so over all flesh. all flesh and therefore certainly we have also in the among the Christians living in the world first of all we have certainly the possibility of progress of development that's the Christian in the world and that is the way in which the sacramental life of the church which is and remains also an essential part of each one of these three stages world, the monastery and the solitude is and leads and is designed to lead into the fullness that is the meaning of the mass that is

[05:51]

therefore a thing which is also accessible to the Christian in the world. We cannot say that the higher stages of the spiritual life, what we call the mystical life, is exclusively limited to those who live in a cloister or in solitude. But that may very well also be and be given to those who live in the world. Indeed, that is one of the great manifestations of the sovereignty of the power of divine grace, that it may be creative power, I would say, of divine grace, that it may develop under all conditions, even under the most adverse conditions. God is In this, the charisms he gives, charismata he gives, he is not bound to any earthly circumstances.

[06:59]

But he is, for that matter, absolutely free. And therefore, the heights of perfection are offered to every Christian. And also the Christian living in the world. and in the same way in the monastery. Those who live in the monastery, just as they bring into the monastery the old man, the limitations, the framework, so to speak, of their natural character, their natural temperament, and don't lose it, so at the same time they are not by the fact that they chose and live and are placed or place themselves into the Vita Communis, are by that fact certainly not excluded from the, as I say, the graces of union.

[08:02]

I think that is absolutely right. We can see that in the rule of Saint Benedict, that he takes that for granted. that the one who takes upon himself the monastic life, then after practice, exercise, training, re-reaches the height of inner, complete inner freedom and of that loving union with God which our Holy Father describes at the end of the chapter on humility. But, naturally, and that I think is of basic importance, one should not forget, the reaching of these heights is bound, of course, to the way outlined in the rules.

[09:04]

whole idea of Saint Benedict in writing the Rule for Beginners was to counteract this common temptation which played havoc with the monastic life of his days, that people already in the beginning, right maybe when they are called into the monastic life, feel that they are, let's say, born contemplative. and therefore run immediately to the height of the life and don't think it's necessary to climb the ladder. And therefore St. Benedict with that tremendous emphasis and all that seriousness that is at his command and which rises out of his own experience of his life, as well as of the divine inspiration that guides him, with all that serious emphasis, as you cannot do the last step before you have done the previous steps, and taken one after the other, the other rungs of the lap, so that the reaching of the, let us roughly speak, of the Vita Unitiva, I mean that deep inner union

[10:31]

love with God. At that stage it's reached only by those who are hungry enough to start on the lowest level and to enter, that means, into that very, say, source of all connection which is the confidence, trusting, obedience to the will of God. That is the source of everything. And because that is the source of everything, you can also see that no state, you know, of the Christian life, also the Christian living in the world, he is in his own condition, and at the place where he is, He is able to bring about that vital contact with the love of God, with the life of God, that contact which alone will lead him to perfection.

[11:45]

I mean the contact with the Humilitas Christi, the humility of Christ. everybody, and that is a wonderful thing, our Christian faith, and in this kingdom of God that Christ has brought down to this world, that we can really and truly be imitators of God. But that imitation of God, of course, is again an imitation in the order, as the Fathers always said, we ascend to God in the very order in which He descended to us. And that is the fundamental. We have and can ascend only on that ladder that the Father has offered to us, the Jacob's Ladder, which from heaven was let down and rammed into this earth.

[12:52]

And that is the Son. That is the Son of God made man. And therefore we can be imitators of God. How? Not by trying to ascend, say, into the glory of God immediately, but by imitating reincarnation, the descent of the Son of God, that is our tremendous privilege. And that is possible, as you can immediately see, in every stage, wherever you are, living the world, or living in the monastery, or living in solitude. That always remains the basis, the imitation of the obedience of Christ, who did not think it robbery to be equal to God, but he descended, emptied himself, and became a slave.

[13:55]

And that certainly is also the meaning of the Cenobitical life. That is the reason why St. Benedict, in his prologue, explaining or inviting to enter into the spirit of the rule, addresses the son and warns him and urges him to take up the splendid, glorious weapons of obedience. All of your love to put me in all of this.

[14:34]

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