Transcript of Abbot Clement=s Talk on Monday, 16 June 2003

            One of the strong items that was presented was that if we want to have a change that is without pretense it has to have the sequence: word, picture, feeling. An example was that when we set goals we should put them in the affirmative form of a word so that it included not only an action, but an emotion. On the little cards given to us personally mine says, AI=m a worthy person and I=m important to my friends.@ My statement includes feeling so I can experience it. This particular sentence, or directive, is in our tradition. The one who articulates it, probably the best, is St. Ignatius in the Exercises. Remember that when St. Ignatius was wounded he read the life of Christ, an extensive work by Ludolph the Carthusian. He became a Carthusian precisely to put together all the writing of the Fathers, including Monastics, especially Bernard and the fruit of the Lectio. Ludolph says, rather graphically in a long paragraph, AWhen you read the life of Christ or the gospels make sure you enter the scene, as if you=re there.@ You smell the air, you see the people, you experience everything. This is a long tradition. This is a re-statement on the psychological level of this principle. In Lectio we are told to read the text slowly so that we can enter it to the point of tasting it. Taste and see how sweet is the Lord.

            Where is it weak? We cannot force God to reveal himself to us. Therefore, when we do this we do this in a very gentle, patient, trusting manner, because when we apply this to spiritual reading and the words of Scripture, the revelations God wants to give us are very capable of going way past the psychological level. That does not mean we should not do this. It just means that the fruit of Lectio can be very profound because as was mentioned at the homily for the vows, when Isaiah went to the temple he thought things were bad politically because the king died. It is the Lord who revealed to him how things really were, and that he was a sinner among sinful people. He could not see that by himself. The Lord reveals our sinfulness that goes past our psychology or He reveals His joy and His presence that goes past our psychology. That is what the spiritual life is about. We are already spirits so we don=t have to make something happen. What we have to do is dispose ourselves, and that is what this does for us. We dispose our self to be open to God=s action which guides us with His light.

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