LEARNING AND TEACHING FROM EXPERIENCE

Osuna speaks of the manner of teaching and learning in the life of recollection: 

'Make everyone your masters and while loving them, flee to one alone.'

THE TRANSFORMATION OF MEMORY

Osuna speaks of how we can keep God in our memory, saying:

'Remember God constantly and call out to Him in sighs' 

Spiritual remembrance is the capacity for an inarticulate 'sighing' of desire in the soul towards goodness, beauty and truth  in all things and all times.  To remember God in this way is more than recall or thinking about God - it is more like a realisation that we are being remembered and recollected up in God. It is this remembering of divine desiring that  gives new life and constatnly nourishes the life of the soul. 

LEARNING THE WISDOM OF WEEPING

'May your tears of recollection be weapons in your fight for glory'  

so says Osuna in the Tenth treatise of the Third Alphabet of Spiritual Recollection 

The spiritual wisdom of weeping lies in the soul gradually orientating towards the fullness of grace  - in an inner attitude of spiritual yearning .  It is this spiritual mourning that moves the spiritual journey along - and the fruit of this mourning is joy.  What is sown in tears we reap in joy.   

Spiritual mourning is linked to the rite of annointing - with sacred oil that is a symbol for the flowing of grace for healing, nourishment , as a sign or mark of a particular calling or as a sign for the passage of dying and death . Osuna reminds us - the soul  enters the world weeping for joy and we leave the world weeping for joy. 

IN PRAISE OF SPIRITUAL PRUDENCE IN EVERYTHING

Of the Prudence you should have in everything, Osuna says: 

 ' Examine, Become Experienced, and perfect all your works'. 

in the Fifth Treatise of Spiritual Recollection.

To learn spiritual prudence is to learn to examine everything in the forge of the conscience, to navigate the ship of the soul with a fearless carefulness, and to learn to extract the sweet wisdom and goodness  of the soul like a bee-keeper extracts honey. 

Live an examined life!

Know yourself not by last things

but by first things.

Know yourself not by deeds

but by their first rooting ,

the first  stirrings of deeds

beginning in the heart.

Before  the grasp of thought .

Before passion intensifies

and acts become habits.

Keep watch with everything

in the forge of conscience.

Keep watch with everything

till the heart’s holy heat is fierce

and a purer act, clearer sight

will come.  

Follow this work through

into a lifetime of perfecting

the heart’s manner of knowing

from first things not last things

like the wise man who

lifts precious metal from the flames

and with utmost patience polishes

till the sheen of gold shines through.

……………………………………………………

Learn to fear wisely and well!

Every sailing in the ship of recollection

rouses fear of deep waters and storms

with only a plank beneath you

and the ocean floor.

So captain your own ship

of spiritual exercise

with prudent fear –

use a plumb -line to measure depth

study the  sea chart

carry many sails

find the north star

and take care of your craft.

But equally …

captain your ship  with prudent fearlessness

not fearing when there is no reason to fear.

Before accusing voices saying –

demented! deceived! demon!

be prudently fearless.

Let your soul not shrink

from anxious advice and imaginings

of every error and conceivable mishap. 

Stay the full course -  prudently fearless!

 ……………………………………………..

Perfect the art of inner tasting !

The wise man contemplates

to open the mouth of his soul.  

He need not understand

what grace is being placed

direct on his tongue

he need not see what nourishes

to learn the manner of savouring

to recognise the flavour of wisdom

and experience for himself

the  vivifying effect .

The wise man continues his work

to educate his  palette

for spiritual tasting .

He savours at leisure

what he does not recognise at first

making fine distinctions in his soul

comparing this subtle flavour with that.

So the conversion of heart  proceeds

through delightful knowing.

But most of all,

the wise man contemplates

to be strengthened in hope.

Like a lover being fed honey

his Beloved invites him

into  a fearless relishing

of a  mere token drop

from the honeycomb of beatitude -

feeding his longing  for more

feeding desire for nothing less

feeding  a sacred ambition

that causes him to cry out in hope

in hope for the fullness

that this sweet dripping foretaste

promised from the beginning.

KNOWING THROUGH INNER "TASTING"

'Come to repose not by understanding but by delightful tasting'

Francisco de Osuna in the Third Spiritual Alphabet.

The soul has two wings .  Learning requires the use of the left wing of understanding, but spiritual repose comes through the right wing of inwardly tasting the sweetness of wisdom. 

PRACTISING THE ART OF LOVE

BRING LOVE TO EVERYTHING, AND DRAW LOVE FROM EVERYTHING

from the sixteenth treatise of The Third Spiritual Alphabet.

The way of recollection  is ultimately THE PATH OF LOVE  that transforms everything  .

The  inner art is to learn to bring loving attention  to every experience  - and THEN to draw out the hidden possibilities of love .

ENCLOSING THE HEART WHEN IN TUMULT OF MIND

'CLOSE THE GATE OF YOUR HEART' and 

'LET PRUDENCE BE YOUR DOORKEEPER'

from the seventh treatise of The Third Spiritual Alphabet

Deepening spiritual recollection inevitably releases deeply buried thoughts that disrupt and overwhelm the soul.

In practising recollection hostile, involuntary thoughts lose their power so the soul can rest in the 'gated' enclosure of the heart .

BEING SCHOOLED IN THE ART OF RECOLLECTION

'TRAIN YOUR SOUL ' and 'FREQUENT THE DESERT OF RECOLLECTION'

from the sixth treatise of Third Spiritual Alphabet

The interior of heart is a ‘desert’ place – a place of withdrawal of attention from exterior things to the Life hidden from ordinary awareness .  

Engaging in  the work of contemplation the soul is trained and prepared for spiritual union.

RECOGNISING AND PROTECTING WHAT GIVES LIFE

'GUARD THE HEART VIGILANTLY, FOR ALL LIFE FLOWS FROM IT'

from the fourth treatise of The Third Spiritual Alphabet.

 As the intensity of spiritual life grows  careful discernment is needed.

THE PEACE and fullness of spiritual recollection needs to be  protected from everything that fragments , dissipates  and restricts it. 

BECOMING STILL AND QUIET TO KNOW DIRECTLY

'BECOME BLIND AND DEAF AND DUMB AND ALWAYS MEEK'

from the third treatise of The Spiritual Alphabet.

In SILENT PRAYER  the ‘eye’ of reason is covered, the  mouth stopped  , and ear is turned away from  impulses and  demands of the mind .

In stillness the portals of the heart  open deeper thresholds of awareness.