Monthly Osuna: Letter Q
Two Kinds of Recollection
This is a monthly series on Francisco de Osuna’s The Third Spiritual Alphabet.1 In each post, we reflect on one letter from his Alphabet. The Alphabet was written as an aid to recollection. Recollection (being recollected in God) is both a form of prayer and a way of being in the world. This month’s letter is Q.
This Letter Speaks of Some Obstacles to Recollection, Saying: You Should Remove Evey Obstacle by Fixing Your Eyes on the Ground. Quitar debe estorvo, hincando en tierra los ojos. (SA 384)
“The mystery of recollection is so noble, excellent, and divine that it serves and helps all things. Not one thing whatsoever is hidden from its warmth, for it is like the sun that lights all creation and is essential that all goodness may flourish. Without recollection no one can do anything good.” (SA 384)
“Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.
I have to deprive all that I call ‘I’ of the light of my attention and turn it on that which cannot be conceived.
The capacity to drive a thought away once and for all is the gateway to eternity. The infinite in an instant.” Simone Weil (GG 177-18)2
Attention Is Prayer
Osuna says that nothing good can be done without recollection. That claim might seem a bit strong, but he clarifies that focused attention is essential to anything done well. He gives examples such as a notary, a carpenter, and a painter. Each one is focused and attends to what they’re doing. Osuna’s larger point is that we have a natural capacity for recollection in our ability to focus all our attention.
As a form of prayer and a way of being in the world, recollection is an act of concentration whereby the attention is withdrawn from whatever is not God. Simone Weil touches on this same idea when she says that unmixed attention is prayer. Unmixed attention is attention that is withdrawn from all that is conceivable.
“Thus, the most perfect recollection is that directed to God because in it we withdraw our attention from whatever is not God to concentrate solely on the Lord God. Therefore, our letter says, ‘You should remove every obstacle by fixing your eyes on the ground.’” (SA 386)
Two Kinds of Recollection
Special Recollection:
This is the practice of recollection during prayer.
“Special recollection is when you retire secretly to pray silently to the Lord, leaving aside absolutely every other occupation and business so as to devote yourself exclusively to total recollection without your concern being fragmented.
“In special recollection you are to retire into your hearts and leave all created things for the length of two hours: one hour before and one hour after noon, at the most quiet time possible. If you have the opportunity to pray longer, so much the better, but if you cannot have even two hours for special recollection, then at least make good use of the one when you are least occupied and spend it as you see suitable.” (SA 388).
General Recollection:
This is the practice of recollection during day-to-day activities.
“This general recollection is our way of going continuously alert with our hearts pacified and sealed…This recollection is a moderation and serenity in a soul that is as quiet as if becalmed and purified and disciplined in harmony within…Even if your work is manual, you need not forsake recollection.” (SA 387)
Recollection is both a form of prayer and a way of being in the world. The effects of our consistent practice of special recollection will invariably carry over into our everyday living because our desire will be with God even when we’re not in prayer. Withdrawing from the world into our hearts becomes our primary desire so that spare moments become opportunities to recollect. And, even when we’re immersed in daily activities, our awareness of the divine presence can persist.
Osuna’s Three Essentials for Recollection
1. A Quiet Place: For special recollection, having a quiet place free of distraction is extremely beneficial. I tend to use the same space, which encourages regularity, but I also try to be practical and adjust for circumstances. With practice one can engage in special recollection virtually anywhere, such as waiting to board a plane, but it helps to have a place to retire that is practically free of distraction.
2. Spiritual Companions: It helps to have others with whom we can share our thoughts and experiences regarding the contemplative life and to hear from others what their experiences have been. Personally, I would encourage anyone who is serious about the contemplative life to take time to explore and mine the centuries of writings devoted to contemplative practice both in the various Christians traditions as well as in other traditions. There is a perennial nature to contemplative practice, which means our spiritual companions can transcend time and space.
3. A Tender and Loving Heart: It makes sense that seeking the presence of eternal love with a heart full of malice and hatred is probably not the best approach. But I would caution against assuming one must have a pure heart in order to practice recollection. Ancient Christians who fled cities for solitude in the desert often talked about seeking a “pure heart,” which sometimes included severe asceticism. The assumption was that contemplation wasn’t even possible without first being established in virtue.
I certainly wouldn’t knock trying to live a virtuous life, but I disagree that one must first attain a particular level of virtue before engaging in contemplation. To the contrary, I would say that virtue is often an effect of contemplation. We don’t need to be saints in order to attend to divine love. Divine love is already attending to us. All we need is a quiet place, a good desire, and patience.
Happily, each one of us have an inherent desire for goodness. If we removed from our awareness all the objects of our desire, our desire for something good would remain. That seed of goodness is a divine gift that grows in a heart cultivated by stillness and silence. So, don’t panic if you’re human with all the usual human faults and desires. Recollection is for humans.
“The three things we have described are exceedingly beneficial for the soul to approach God quietly, but the third is the most essential of them, for the words of the psalm apply to it: ‘Life is in the will.’” (SA 403)
“So withdraw your will from malice and adorn it with the tenderness of a loving heart…All Spiritual progress depends on the disposition and readiness of the will.” (SA 402)
Francisco de Osuna The Third Spiritual Alphabet (Trans. Mary E. Giles; Preface Kieran Kavanaugh; Paulist Press, 1981)
Simone Weil Gravity and Grace (Trans. Emma Crawford and Mario von der Ruhr; Routledge Classics, 2002)