God Speaks in Solitude

God speaks

in solitude

Dialogues on Spiritual Life

Esteban de Emmaus

and other anonymous siblings

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Foreword by Fray Alberto E. Justo

DIALOGUES

Affirming Christ

The necessary attitude

Ego and asceticism

The Virgin and the Inner Silence

Fasting arrogance and conversion 

A moment of quietness

Pray always

The existence of God and beauty

Between faith and reason

In line with your will

A visit to the hermitages

Sermon to Aspirants on Anointing and Reverence

Sermon on the Need of the Holy Spirit

LETTERS

A Way to Win

Fundamentals of the day

How to pray

Prayer continues

Sacred presence

ANNEXES

About Attention I

About Care II

About Attention III

INTRODUCTION

The dialogue is a pedagogical form widely used in the early days of Christianity. Through questions and answers, the disciple entered into the wisdom of the spiritual master.

  Taking up this beloved form of the first Fathers of the desert, Brother Esteban de Emmaus presents us with the spiritual journey of a young novice, in which each one of us is represented, who asks and shows his doubts to the spiritual master with the desire to begin, to enter and to climb the path of the contemplative life.

  Therefore, his conversations before the fire of the fireplace, before the icon, in the cold of the master's cell... or by means of excerpts from personal letters, deal with the various topics that assault those who begin on the spiritual path: how to begin to pray, how to overcome distractions, what role asceticism has in the spiritual life, what to do with doubts about one's own vocation and about faith, etc... A whole varied set of pitfalls and explanations that bring peace to the beginner and encourage the one who has already passed the first stays of the interior castle, in the expression of Saint Teresa.

  In the book, the reality of the situations and the clarity of the answers prevail, as an expression of the fact that one speaks of what one lives.

  We do not doubt that this book can be a very effective help and a spur for all those who do not dare to begin the path of prayer or, once started, doubt whether to follow it, in the face of the difficulties that arise.

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FOREWORD

Often the mere mention of loneliness produces a certain fear and no less rejection, perhaps because, for now, other values and other situations in human life are overemphasized.

  But here we are not trying to claim, defend or recommend a certain kind of life, but rather to point out a reality and even a vocation, precisely as a proper ambit of this human life.

  Sooner or later, one discovers an openness, a desire for breadth and freedom that is not adequately satisfied in this world. An interior impulse, a lighted flame that pushes beyond and discovers vocation or transcendence in the soul.

  Someone has spoken of an oceanic feeling, of the horizons of a sea without confines that seems to have a close relationship with the interiority of the soul. Or, better, that the soul is discovered, probed, in the beauty of a landscape that always continues further (or closer), more here or beyond.

  Then we discover the desert... The path we trace goes deeper into the mystery of life until it passes beyond any image, precisely because the desert signals transcendence and the overcoming of images.

  Insurmountable path, this one of the heart. In spite of the storms we do not abandon it. We continue, like the prophet Elijah, because there is still a long way to go. But, like the old masters, we know that whoever set out, somehow, has already reached his destination.

  It is the Inner Hermitage that we find built as a temple by the very hand of God.

He wants to dwell there, in the secret, in that happy intimacy from which nothing and no one can separate us.

  It is true that there are many calls to the desert and to solitude in the courses of this world and its geography. It is true that there are places that favour contemplation and silence...

  But how can we recognize that one desert if it were not already present in our heart? How can we discover solitude and silence if they were not hidden realities, prior to their existence and external manifestation?

  When we continue and leave behind the burdens that make our steps difficult, when we free ourselves of so much luggage; then in the depths of the night we perceive the first lights of the dawn, those levants of the dawn as Saint John of the Cross said.

  For here, first of all, we are invited to return to the heart and to discover the profound life in the desert of our soul. Many are the ways of solitary life, although we prefer to say that it lacks ways.

  Perhaps no one will know about this solitude...

  For who can penetrate the mystery of the desert? Who dares to understand it?

  The desert can be guessed, glimpsed, suspected... It is too intimate to tear it apart and expose it before the avid and curious eyes.

  All of us, in some way, are called to awaken to the science of solitude. The life of the ancient Desert Fathers can be exemplary and prototypical. The special luminosity of such icons turns out to be a magisterium of holiness.

  There are, then, two kinds of solitaries or hermits: those who profess this life retire physically to a material desert, and those who have discovered the secret hermitage and inhabit it, far from the world.

  There is no doubt that what we could call the spirituality of the desert is the permanent sap that vivifies all religious existence.

  The texts that follow show clearly that this spirituality is still alive and in force today even in the midst of the desacralised.

FR. ALBERTO E. JUSTO, O.P.

About the 2nd edition

  In this second edition, some imperfections of the first edition have been corrected, due in general to the syntactic literal transcription from the structure of a web with a blog format; which was the medium in which these texts were first published.   - (2009 -  Hesiquía blog)

  Some titles and texts have also been modified with respect to the paper version published by Narcea in 2010.

  We have added the chapter Sacred Presence that came to complete two previous chapters. Finally, we have added three annexes on attention, which we consider particularly relevant, since its author considers it an essential aptitude for spiritual growth.

It is currently under preparation in our editorial the "Manual of Jesus' Prayer", with all the published and unpublished texts of Stephen of Emmaus to date.

The editors.

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AFFIRM CHRIST

I never suspected, at that moment, that the simple test posed to me by the one I would later meet as Father Vasily, would completely transform my life.

  We shared the hard seats of the tourist class of the train. The twelve hours we spent together in the midst of discomfort and noise were decisive for me, a gift that I noticed later, as time went by.

  But that will be the subject of another writing; the one now deals with the affirmation or denial of Christ and the small test that the monk suggested to me to carry out in daily life.

  It was a matter of beginning to wear a cross around your neck at all times. That was the point. It had to be a cross a little bigger than usual, a little more voluminous than the ones in fashion, almost like the one used by bishops. The point was that it should be noticed, that it should not go unnoticed.

  And that's all?

  Yes, that's all; he said, but you must wear it everywhere and in all circumstances, except for sleeping, of course. When you lie down you can hold it in one hand, gently.

  That seems simple to me.

  Then it won't be difficult for you to do it, said the laughing monk.

  But I had enormous difficulties. As I struggled in daily life not to fail the promise, I imagined the hermit laughing, knowing the resistances he was going to face. The first thing was the fear of what they would say, the fear of being believed to be a religious madman.

  The first opportunity to deny Christ was with the closest ones. No one said anything to me, but it was obvious that they were looking at the cross sideways and that it surprised them. They had the face of asking: What's wrong with this one? I could see then how my ego cared about the look of others, what they thought of me.

  But I remembered the apostle Peter denying the Lord to save life and I could not allow myself to do the same just to hold an opinion with acquaintances.

  I thanked the situation sometime later, because I had the opportunity to say yes to Christ every time I repressed the impulse to keep the cross under my coat, putting it hurriedly around my neck before the prospect of a new encounter with someone.

  The second enemy manifested itself through fashion, or rather, through what is supposed to intone or clash. I never paid particular attention to clothing, but I always tried not to make a fool of myself.

  However, wearing the cross on sportswear or work attire was sometimes very out of place.

  I realized then that I judged harshly people who dressed out of tune, because in my fear of the judgment of others, I could not help but see the projection of my own opinions.

  I remembered the with the rod that you measure you will be measured and I was grateful for the teaching that this new understanding gave me.

  And this out of tune thing was very interesting because what was discordant was not only in relation to attire but also in relation to situations.

  Many times, the logic came to beg me to hide the cross, that the monk's challenge did not include carrying it exposed in all situations, that I had already learned what I had to learn and that it was reasonable, I was not going to commit an excess.

But a feeling that was