Perhaps the most fundamental sign of our time is the loss of God. From it arise all other contemporary phenomena. Pope Paul VI spoke of the current attempt to create a civilization and culture without God. A saying has arisen that God is dead. Atheists, both theoretical and practical materialists, deny the existence of God. Believers acknowledge it, but have the impression that God is not present here, or that He does not act, as if He has left this world, that one can live without God.
We must also see God's providence in this. God wants to lead people to an ever more perfect, purer faith, to a "naked" faith, as St. John of the Cross calls it, which is not dependent on anything, cannot rely on anything, but only on God. It was once said that one must have hope against hope when all evidence is against it. Today, it must be said that one must "have faith against faith," when everything speaks against faith. Such was the faith of the Virgin Mary standing at Jesus' cross.
What does faith tell us? At the beginning of Sacred Scripture, it is stated: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." To create means to bring into being from nothing. This means that God must be continually present in the world for it to continue to exist. When a carpenter makes a table from wood, he can leave, and the table remains. If God were to leave the world, it would return to nothing. From this, it follows that God recreates the world every moment, that He is in every being and in every action. God is the primary cause; we only cooperate with Him. "God is all in all" (1 Cor 15:28).
In this way, God is present in every creature. It is a natural divine presence arising from creation. But Sacred Scripture reveals to us another divine presence, supernatural, immensely higher, which God communicates to us out of love, out of grace. In this, God grants us participation in His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), in His own life. We receive life from God; we are therefore God's children, and God is our Father. We are born of God (John 1:13). It is a rebirth, a second birth from the Holy Spirit (John 3:3). From the moment of baptism, the three divine Persons dwell in us (John 14:23), (24 hours a day, as the well-known Mother Teresa says), as long as a person does not turn away from God through mortal sin, does not kill this life – which the Lord Jesus calls "eternal life" – within themselves and does not lose this sanctifying grace. Life is the first gift from God. Natural life, but especially that supernatural life. The first was lost by humanity due to sin, but the Lord Jesus regained it for us through His death and grants it to us through the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).
He Himself had, as a man, this dual life, natural and supernatural, this dual divine presence. When, as the Son of God, He took on human nature, He not only took on a human body and soul but also grace. He had divine grace like we do, only with the difference that in Him there was an absolute fullness of grace and no contradiction between grace and nature as we experience it. And He gave us an example of how we should live with God:
"I do nothing on my own, but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him" (John 8:28–29).
When we are in grace, the entire Most Holy Trinity is in us. The three divine Persons live in us with their own life, which is mutual among them. But they are also active towards us, each in their own way. God is continually active in us, loves us, and is united with us.
Of course, God does not impose Himself on anyone. He quietly gives us His inspirations. It depends on us whether we follow our own corrupted nature or the prompting of grace. Within us, grace and nature are constantly at odds.
In the church office, there is a beautiful request to God, asking Him to accompany us with His grace: "Almighty God, enlighten us with Your inspiration and guide our actions with Your help, so that we may do everything, from beginning to end, in union with you. Through Your Son..." (Morning praises on Monday of the 1st week).
But how do we learn to live in God's presence? For this, various spiritual schools have invented different "exercises in the presence of God." The Carmelites see their most authentic goal in such a life with God. When God dwells in us, thinks of us, and loves us, it is fitting and a requirement of love for us to also think of Him and love Him, to have that mutual loving connection. In other words, to transform that permanent (habitual) connection, which lasts even when we do not think of Him, into a conscious, (actual), intimate connection.
Thus lived the Lord Jesus; the most important aspect of His life was His relationship with the Father, as we have heard. Such was the life of the Virgin Mary, to whom we are consecrated. Her Immaculate Heart was a worthy dwelling of the Holy Spirit; she did everything from Him, and was in constant touch with Him. This is what the prophet Elijah says about himself, on whom the Carmelite Order relies: "As the Lord lives, the God of hosts, before whose face I stand." The statutes of the order state that this is His precious heritage for us.
Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity expresses this in her prayer: "My God, Most Holy Trinity, I adore you. Help me to completely forget myself, to be settled in you... Calm my soul; make it your heaven, your dear dwelling, your place of rest. Grant that I may never leave you alone in it, that I may be entirely there, awake in faith, immersed in adoration, wholly surrendered to your creative activity."
This intimate connection with God begins in prayer. After all, prayer is nothing other than contact with God. It passes from much thinking (meditation) to an ever simpler and more straightforward gaze at Him, to loving rest in Him (contemplation). This can be calm, pleasant, or even amidst suffering and trials. Prayer is the breath (aspiratio) of the soul (Frater John of St. Samson).
A close relationship with God then enters our actions, into our whole life, even into the most ordinary things. One increasingly sees the will of God in daily duties and fulfills them out of love for Him. One recognizes God in everything else, in the entire happening of the world, until God becomes "all in all" for him. His life is increasingly guided by divine virtues: faith, hope, and love, which unite him with God. By the light of faith, he uncovers God everywhere. "The righteous shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17). In hope, he gains firm trust in God. By love, he completely surrenders himself to Him. St. Therese of Lisieux concludes: "My only occupation is love."
According to Brother John of St. Samson, in all that we do, the inclination (affect) of our heart should be turned to God. It is not possible to constantly think, but even a small child can love continually. A lover must even force himself to be torn away from the memory of the beloved person (similar to a person filled with hatred from the hated person). With love for God, it is like with love among humans. Fiancés and newlyweds continually declare their love, but later love enters into all aspects of their life. This connection in love with God is prayer. Thus, continuous prayer, which the Lord Jesus requests (Luke 18:1), is possible. Blessed Titus Brandsma says: "Prayer is life, not an oasis in life."
In this concentration on God, our saints reached the very peaks. St. Therese of Lisieux told her sister Marie that there never passed even three minutes without her thinking of God. St. John of the Cross writes: "Always strive to remain in the presence of God... Never let your heart wander, even if only for the duration of a single 'I believe'." St. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi urged her sisters: "Let not a moment pass that you do not know where your heart is."
Sacred Scripture states: "Woe to him who is alone" (Ecclesiastes 4:10). When we hear these words, we usually think only about maintaining contact with our fellow human beings. Certainly, but first and foremost with God. To be only within oneself, isolated, cut off from God and from everyone else means hell. God created us in His image. Just as the three divine Persons cannot each live for themselves, but live in a mutual relationship of love ("God is love" 1 John 4:8), so too must man have relationships of love, according to the measure of grace. To the Most Holy Trinity or to the individual Persons: to the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, to the Lord Jesus.
In this continual, active, intimate connection, we can also live with the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, and through her with God. This is God's will. The Lord Jesus established her as our Mother on the cross at the moment of our redemption. Just as in the natural order, a person receives life from the father through the mother, so in the supernatural order, from God through Mary. She is the Mediatrix of all God's graces. We can entrust ourselves to her with everything and be constantly in her presence, consciously doing everything together with her.
If we are genuinely connected with God, we are connected with His creation. Everything becomes alive for us. "In God, everything lives," we pray in the office for the deceased. In God, there is all life; without God, everything is dead. God is light; without God, there is darkness. Without God, one walks in darkness (John 3:19; 8:12; 12:35 n.46). Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. In Him, we see the whole truth, the whole reality.
In living in God's presence, our Statutes see the task of Carmel: "We want to seek and live in this world the presence of the true and living God, who has spoken to us in Christ" (no. 13). "As Carmelites, we have from the beginning and continually again made the resolution to show people the necessity of living in the presence of God" (no. 83).
Fr. Metoděj Minařík O.Carm.
