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 T.
This Letter Cautions Us to Seek God Within, Saying: Retire into Yourself Often in Silence and Hope. Torna mucho sobre ti en silencio y esperanza.
“The soul with its senses closed off in silence mounts higher and, standing, is raised up to God. To be like this day and night is the meaning of our letter, for the devout should never knowingly abandon the watch. Our letter uses the word “often” not only to encourage us to retire frequently into ourselves with very attentive purpose and animation in our hearts but also to signify that we are to practice this for a long time, keeping God vividly and sharply in the memory.” (Matt 6:33; SA 487)
Seek God Within
“‘Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all things will be added to you.’ It is astonishing to realize that although we need many things, as the Lord himself explains in this chapter, we are only ordered to seek one.” (Matt. 6:33; SA 475)
“‘Behold, the kingdom of God is withing you.’ If the kingdom is within us, then we only delay and make detours if we go forth in search by withdrawing to external considerations, and become distracted by them.” (Luke 17:21; SA 478)
Stillness and silence are the refuge in which we commune with eternal love and receive the good for which we are created. Although it might seem counter-intuitive that in abandoning everything for a few moments we receive all that we need, but experience proves that in the emptiness and poverty of spirit that we cultivate during recollection, we are filled to overflowing and prepared for every good work.
Love and Goodness Flow Out From God Within
“It happens that if those who practice this exercise become negligent, especially if their attention strays to something else, God himself awakens and enlivens them in such a way that the soul can return to recollection without ceasing to look at or understand that which diverted its attention, for this exercise perfects rather than impedes all else. And because the experienced soul returns from other considerations to recollection, we say that it is not difficult for the person who practices recollection to pray for a long time, for in prayer everything else is turned to good and works in good. All things cooperate as the soul, while still able to attend to other matters, goes out to receive this one in which the Holy Spirit is felt and functions by urging hearts to love God through all these other affairs.” (SA 489)
Out of the good treasure of the heart comes an abundance of good things (Luke 6:45). Osuna reminds us that if we persist in our practice, our practice will permeate our daily lives. The grace and peace given to us during recollection is preparation for the outflow of divine love for others. We are not mere receptacles of divine goodness, as if the flow finds its fulfillment in us, but we are conduits for eternal love, which has no limit. Hence, in the stillness and silence of our hearts, we pray: Thy will be done.
Francisco de Osuna The Third Spiritual Alphabet (Trans. Mary E. Giles; Preface Kieran Kavanaugh; Paulist Press, 1981)