St.
Abraham, Hermit – Perfection Gained by Spiritual Detachment – The
Beginning of the True Love of God is Inner Silence and the Spirit of
Detachment - God is Displeased When We Let Our Inner Peace be
Disturbed
Ecstasy
date September 10, 1878
“I
am Saint Abraham, Hermit. (Possibly St. Abraham Kidunaia) I am a
solitary who lived in
the desert and I am known here on earth. I come to say a word on
behalf of Our
Lord
before entering the Holy Novitiate.
Let
us all pray and do penance because today penances are rare,
the pleasures are great. (I.e.
the opportunity to do penance is not there as in the past and worldly
earthy pleasures abound.) Consider our very short passage
on this earth, and in this thought,
we love God more. Let us love Him for those who do not love Him.
Let us all be solitaries (i.e. hermits) on earth, that is to say, we
enclose ourselves in the Love and the Secret of God. We live in this
strength, live in the love that Our Lord gives us so generously. It
is tender, it is extremely sweet to suffer on earth, especially when
God allows the complete detachment of all things in order to be
occupied with Him alone in our hearts and thoughts. If there is a
life of happiness on earth, it is this, a detached life, a life all
consumed in the Holy Will of God. In death our will will find perfect
peace. If a soul is to serve God well, if it would love Him dearly
and enjoy His tender Love, it will be detached, it separates itself
from the frivolous love that exists on earth, I mean love in
creatures. If we are to find the Creator, if we wish to talk to
Him, if we want Him to be the only witness of everything we do, we
must break the human bond that still prevents us from reaching the
highest perfection. Why seek away from God, pleasure, happiness and
satisfaction? Where are they to be found? Could there be a new source
(for these things), after we we no longer live on earth?”
Marie-Julie:
“Oh, no, good saint, there is no new source for that!”
St.
Abraham: “Why do we find while in the maintenance of the world,
(i.e., while they
still live on earth) a
kind of strength, courage and expansion? Because they are not
entirely dead to the human creature. There is still a long way to go,
there is a strong bond to break and our wills to master. How can this
be done, if souls continue to do their own will? This is what
happens. They climb in the beginning to a certain
degree of progress. Once there, they have no
more courage. It happens that the creature goes back, it needs a
human support. At this degree, where they rest for some time rather
than climb the mountain, sometimes they descend more strongly than
when they climbed, thanks due to this kind of carnal love.” (I.e.
attachment to the things of the world and people as a source of
happiness and comfort keeps one from making progress in spiritual
perfection.)
Marie-Julie:
“Good saint, I did not know that it is like that.”
Saint
Abraham: “It is a kind of love that God does not love because
often it is not pure, it is imperfect, and they often believe that
they see clearly when they see darkness. We are all (placed) on
earth to love our Father, our Creator. He alone can no longer be
enough? He alone is no longer as powerful as before? Since seeking
far from Him to satisfy their heart is not in this love, they will
look for a way to fortify and console themselves because the love of
the creature is often a great depravity among souls who come together
to console and strengthen themselves with a pinch of dust, since the
creature is nothing but corruption and imperfection.
On
the earth, our Divine Saviour, who so loved us, wants us to love Him.
Let us retreat into ourselves and let us say this word that I have
often pondered:
"What
will it serve to have been satisfied, that I would use these hours
without the Presence, without thinking of God? These are hours which
are not counted, which are not marked among the number of merits."
When
one lives alone with God, how happy they are! All worries seem to
vanish because only God makes us so happy while we live, so to speak,
in perfect love. All on earth was created to love us, to suffer and
to relieve us. (Note: he seems to say here when were are
completely attached to God alone, then we truly live in the world,
but not of it, the earth then becomes as God intended for us, a means
to perfection and not something to drag us down, as what happens when
we become attached to things of earth first without God.)
Never
has the number of ingratitudes been greater than today. One no longer
loves to relieve
his neighbour, they no longer like to do something to repair his
attacked honour. Why? Because
they are weak and that they are cowards and they still have an
attachment that is not broken.
(i.e. Ingratitude, slander, lack of charity are vices of weak
cowardly souls that are still attached to the things of earth.)
We
enter into silence, and most importantly, we move away from the noise
of the earth to serve God, to taste how sweet it is to love Him on
earth. This is the beginning of true love. Life
is full of miseries, it is full of torments, pain and worry, we
keep our peace in the midst of the biggest problems. It is a sign
that God has dug in us, the beginning of the source of peace. We
carry our crosses, more or less burdensome on earth and sometimes it
happens that our crosses are frightening in their gravity.
(Next
sentence is a rough translation: During our life, it is
not that God weighs down our miserable body, the world is mixed
there.) If while on this earth we are never perfectly tranquil it is
because we sometimes see, sometimes we experience another pain that
comes to crown the pain that (before) was moderate. Soon this trouble
is so great
that one can not measure it, explain it or understand it. Guard
peace, let us be tranquil. God watches over us. God protects us and
helps us by His grace and His love. Keep the peace, it
pleases God. By disturbing His peace, you displease God …
(I.e. no matter how great they are, let no troubles, sufferings or
anxieties disturb your inner peace gained by the spirit of
detachment.)
Let
us obey God as He is leading us, who commands and who orders us...
The victims of the Cross have to bear the Cross. Is it not the
richest, most beautiful, the most in loving? Why do they (the
victims) need anything else, when God gives them a rich treasury
overflowing on all sides? The Cross is to be their union, their
companion, their rest, their support, consolation, their hope and
their home on earth.”
*****
Note:
this must be Abraham Kidunaia (d. c. 366) as the Rev. Alan Butler
wrote the following description of him in his “Lives of the Saints”
Vol 3. (1866) which corresponds with his message to Marie-Julie
Jahenny:
“St.
Abraham converted his desert into a paradise, because he found in it
his God, whose presence makes Heaven. He wanted not the company of
men, who enjoyed that of God and his angels; nor could he ever be at
a loss for employment, to whom both the days and nights were two
short for heavenly contemplation. “Whilst his body was employed in
penitential manual labour, his mind and heart were sweetly taken up
in God, who was to him All in All, and the centre of all his desires
and affections. His watchings were but an uninterrupted sacrifice of
divine love, and by the ardour of his desire, and the disposition of
his soul and its virtual tendency to God, his sleep itself was a
continuation of his union with God, and exercise of loving him. He
could truly say with the spouse, I
sleep, but my heart watcheth.
Thus Christians, who are placed in distracting stations, may also, if
they accustom themselves, converse interiorly with God in purity of
heart, and in all their actions and desires have only his will in
view. Such a life is a kind of imitation of the Seraphim, to whom to
live and to love are one and the same thing. “The angels,” says
St. Gregory the Great, “always carry their Heaven about with them
wheresoever they are sent, because they never depart from God, or
cease to behold him; ever dwelling in the bosom of his immensity;
living and moving in him, and exercising their ministry in the
sanctuary of his divinity.” This is the happiness of every
Christian who makes a desert, by interior solitude, in his own
heart.”
About
St. Abraham's life, Rev. Butler wrote:
St. Abraham was born at Chidana, in
Mesopotamia, near Edessa, of wealthy and noble parents, who,
after giving him a most virtuous education, were desirous of
engaging him in the married state. In compliance with their
inclinations, Abraham took to wife a pious and noble virgin: but
earnestly desiring to live and die in the state of holy
virginity, as soon as the marriage ceremony and feast were over,
having made known his resolution to his new bride, he secretly
withdrew to a cell two miles from the city Edessa; where his
friends found him at prayer after a search, of seventeen days. By
earnest entreaties he obtained their consent, and after their
departure walled up the door of his cell, leaving only a little
window, through which he received what was necessary for his
subsistence. He spent his whole time in adoring and praising God,
and imploring his mercy. He every day wept abundantly. He was
possessed of no other earthly goods but a cloak and a piece of
sackcloth which he wore, and a little vessel out of which he both
eat and drank. For fifty years he was never wearied with his
austere penance and holy exercises, and seemed to draw from them
every day fresh vigour. Ten years after he had left the world, by
the demise of his parents, he inherited their great estates, but
commissioned a virtuous friend to distribute the revenues in
alms-deeds. Many resorted to him for spiritual advice, whom he
exceedingly comforted and edified by his holy discourses.
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A large country town in the
diocese of Edessa, remained till that time addicted to idolatry,
and its inhabitants had loaded with injuries and outrages all the
holy monks and others who had attempted to preach the gospel to
them. The bishop at length cast his eye on Abraham, ordained him
priest though much against his will, and sent him to preach the
faith to those obstinate infidels. He wept all the way as he
went, and with great earnestness repeated this prayer: “Most
merciful God, look down on my weakness: assist me with thy grace,
that thy name may be glorified. Despise not the works of thy own
hands.” At the sight of the town, reeking with the impious
rites of idolatry, he redoubled the torrents of his tears: but
found the citizens resolutely determined not to hear him speak.
Nevertheless, he continued to pray and weep among them without
intermission, and though he was often beaten and ill-treated, and
thrice banished by them, he always returned with the same zeal.
After three years the infidels were overcome by his meekness and
patience, and being touched by an extraordinary grace, all
demanded baptism. He staid one year longer with them to instruct
them in the faith; and on their being supplied with priests and
other ministers, he went back to his cell.”
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**
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