Gal Einai
by Fr. Dominic Borg, OCD
One of the few places where we encounter
these two words is Psalm 119.18: "Open
my eyes, so that I may behold wondrous
things
out of your law (Torah)".
Dear brothers and sisters in Carmel,
The year 2006 is quickly coming to
an end,
and a New Year is approaching! But,
before
we close the door upon the year 2006,
there
are a few things that we ought to take
into
consideration. One of them is the expression:
Gal Einai. Yes, these two words should
perhaps
find a permanent place in our hearts,
and
be found more often on our lips. Taking
into
consideration the beautiful prayer
that these
two Hebrew words introduce; the setting
that
they found in this longest chapter
of the
Bible, we are struck with awe at this
powerful
prayer: " Open my eyes, so that
I may
behold wondrous things out of your
law."
If what has been said is exciting indeed,
then what is more exciting is the fact
that
Psalm 119.18 is the only place in the
Old
Testament where we find such a petition
addressed
to the Lord with reference to the petitioner!
The other references where we have
in the
Old Testament an equivalent of this
expression,
are: 1 Kings 8.29; 2 Chronicles 6.40;
2 Chronicles
7.15; Nehemiah 1.6; and Daniel 9.18.
In these
five references, the petitioner asks
God
to open HIS eyes. Please do go and
read these
five texts, and scrutinize them. However,
one cannot bypass the text from Daniel
9.18,
a prayer that every Canadian Carmelite
ought
to utter on behalf of our Country:
"Incline your ear, O my God, and
hear.
Open your eyes and look at our desolation
and the city that bears your name.
We do
not present our supplication before
you on
the ground of our righteousness, but
on the
ground of your great mercies."
(Daniel
9.18)
The three months ahead of us are going
to
keep us busy; and if we stay awake,
as Our
Lord told us to do, and we also listen
to
the admonition of St Paul: "Awake
O
sleeper", then you can rest assured
that we are going to have many opportunities
where we can get enriched and be fed
spiritually.
Ahead of us are the Feasts of St Therese,
St Teresa Our Mother, St John of the
Cross,
Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, Advent,
and after all these, Christmas will
find
us ready to present our "cave"
where Jesus wants to be born: Yes Born
In
Us !
Among the treasures that we find in
the Rule
of St Benedict, we find these insights:
"The
monk should keep his tongue from talking;
he should preserve silence... he should
not
be ready and quick to laughter ...
for as
it written: The wise man becomes known
for
his few words!" The same message
on
the importance of silence is found
in Our
Rule, The Rule of St Albert: "The
Apostle
would have us keep silence, for in
silence
he tells us to work" ( 2 Thessalonians
3.12). As the Prophet also makes known
to
us: Silence is the way to foster holiness
(Isaiah 32.17 ). Elsewhere he says:
Your
strength will lie in silence and hope
(Isaiah
30.15 ). In speaking about silence,
St Therese,
in her Last Conversation, writes: "Take
silence for example, what good it does
to
the soul, what failures in charity
it prevents,
and so many other troubles of so many
kinds".
St Teresa of Jesus, Our Mother, comes
to
meet us with the advice not to rush
in prayer:
"You do much more by saying one
word
of the Our Father from time to time
than
rushing through it many times."
(W.P.
Ch 31.11).
As regard words of admonition which
St John
of the Cross presents in front of us,
one
cannot, and should not overlook the
advice
which he gives in the Precautions:
"Let,
then, the first precaution be that,
without
the command of obedience, you never
take
upon yourself any work - apart from
the obligations
of your state - however good and full
of
charity it may seem... if you do not
observe
this precaution in little things as
well
as big, you will be unable to avoid
the devil's
deceiving you to a small or great degree,
no matter how right you think you are."
(The Precautions # 11).
Though the feast of Blessed Elizabeth
of
the Trinity comes before that of St.
John
of the Cross, yet I find it helpful
to quote
her last. The reason is obvious after
we
hear her speaking about her Mission
in Heaven.
Towards the end of her life, Blessed
Elizabeth
of the Trinity called herself quite
often
by the name that she desired to be
called
by in Heaven Laudem Gloriae.(praise
of glory).
In one of her letters she says: "I
think
that in Heaven my Mission will be to
draw
souls by helping them to go out of
themselves
in order to cling to God by a wholly
simple
and loving movement, and to keep them
in
this great silence within which it
will allow
God to communicate Himself to them
and to
transform them into Himself."
It is
through and in this GREAT SILENCE that
Blessed
Elizabeth mentions that "the Word
became
flesh" and dwelt among us and
in us
!
Christmas is without doubt the Feast
of Joy,
Silence, and Adoration. The way Mary
said
Her Yes in the Silence, the same way
in the
Silence of the night, the Savior was
born!
It is no wonder that the word S I L
E N T
has the same letters of L I S T E N.
When
we learn how to listen to the Word
of God
in a silent prayerful way, we too experience
the profound JOY which on Christmas
we announce
to others: Joy to the World!
The last time I was talking to Our
Rev Fr
Provincial, Fr Victor Mallia, he asked
me
to communicate to each one of you his
Best
Wishes and Blessings. We too reciprocate
ours, and wish him and all the Members
of
the Maltese Province, OCD, God's Blessings
and God's PEACE which is the Vessel
that
contains all God's Blessings.
In Retrospect, I stand in awe at the
amount
of work that has been done with God's
grace!
Thank God the Second edition of the
Formation
Manual is in print. The Manual "Our
Journey towards the Promises and Beyond"
another tool in the hands of those
who are
responsible for formation and those
who are
in the process of formation itself,
is in
the process of being handed on in instalments.
A new format of the Ritual is also
being
printed, and by the time this issue
of Carmel
Lights reaches your hands, it will
be out.
There are quite a group of members
all over
Canada who are involved in the production
of these important and helpful tools
for
the benefit of all. Starting from the
Secretariat,
those who are typing and re-typing
these
whole books and booklets, those who
review
and correct the drafts and making sure
to
pick up the misprints or other imperfections,
all those OCDS members who are working
hard
behind the scenes, I sincerely thank
all
of you, and at the same time congratulate
you for your hard work and dedication.
Any
financial support towards the publication
of these books and booklets is greatly
appreciated.
May I take this opportunity to welcome
all
the new members of the OCDS and may
all the
Carmelite Saints (Feast Day November
14th),
continue to guide all of us along the
path
that leads to PEACE.
The Apostle Paul admonishes us: "Let
love be genuine..." (Romans 12.9),
and
Hans Urs Von Balthasar says: "Nothing
is as free as love, apart from love,
all
so-called freedom is no freedom at
all."
Yes dear Brothers and sisters in Carmel,
LOVE ought to be our Rule; and may
we bear
in mind the famous saying of Dietrich
Bonhoeffer:
"He who loves Community, destroys
Community;
he who loves his brother/sister builds
up
Community!"
Keeping focused on the Feast of Love,
let
us make sure that the stars and lights
we
see on Christmas Day continue to remind
us
that though the Magi were intellectuals,
students of the stars and seekers of
truth,
it took the learned sages somewhat
longer
than the unlearned shepherds to find
their
way to Bethlehem; but ... they got
there
in the end.
In the name of the Friars, Fr. Provincial,
Fr. Henry, Fr. Pius, Fr. Manny, and
Fr. Martin,
I wish all of you, OCDS members, and
our
OCD Sisters at Uxbridge, God's Blessings
of PEACE:
"May the Lord give strength to
his people!
May the Lord bless his people with
peace!"
(Psalm 29.11)
Wishing all of you and yours
A Happy Christmas
enriched with the Blessing of Peace!
Fr. Dominic, OCD
Beauty cannot be touched.
It cannot be described or explained.
The more we uncover Beauty, the more
it eludes
us.
Beauty is where the world makes a window
for the
light of the Infinite to shine in !