A Carthusian Gives Clarifying Helps for How It Is, in Union

The Carthusian writings the Sacred Heart points out to the hermit these days of Advent, explain to any questioning souls, about how it is that a being such as the hermit [or any such imperfect soul that finds itself ensnared within God] could possibly be in union with God, nesting within His Sacred Heart.

A Carthusian writes:

This is because union with God, which is the source of divine peace in the soul, does not necessarily imply natural human perfection. Such union consists in perfect conformity with God's designs upon us. A soul can be supernaturally perfect--and consequently at peace--and yet have many natural imperfections. This is particularly the case with a temperament whic is persistently over-impressionable, and which vibrates to every breath from without, while the heart feels and echoes these vibrations. It is sufficient for the soul to accept this stsate of things and to make a constant effort, simple, calm, and confident, day by day, to keep under control this lower part, and to submit it to the guidance of reason, and above all to that of faith.

For that is what constitutes forgetfulness of self and abandonment to God. To forget oneself does not mean not thinking of oneself, but thinking of oneself to the extent willed by God. God wills that, for the life of both soul and body, we should take certain measures indicated by reason and approved on a higher plane by faith with a view to a supernatural end. Not to do so is neither to abandon oneself to God nor to forget oneself, but to tempt God and to depart from His designs. We abandon ourselves when, having taken these measures, we pay no heed to the results, but leave it to God to bring them about or not, as He pleases. This is true abandonment, which glorifies God, and brings peace to the soul. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will." The real good will is that of Him Who is Goodness itself and Love itself. A human will is good in so far as it identifies itself in all things with that Will.

Now, this is truth, beauty and goodness, is it not? One must ponder this from within the Sacred Heart, for the Carthusian who wrote these thoughts wrote them from within the Sacred Heart, learned them from the Heart of the Sacred Heart, and thus they are absorbed within the Sacred Heart.

Yet, they are piped out to the world through the Wound of the Sacred Heart. Yes, this is how the hermit is learning to speak and to perceive all: through this opening which has a slight bit of tunnel through a space of spirit and matter, which extends from the spirit of the Sacred Heart and out into the temporal world in which matter predominates but spirit exists. The hermit, however, is still matter and spirit within the spirit.

What is our end? It is to glorify God. How do we glorify God? In spirit and in truth. And some souls do this to a greater degree than other souls. The degree directly proportionates with the degree that spirit predominates; yet the matter is not shirked or forgotten, but to be considered to the extent willed by God.