Monthly Osuna: Letter X
Temptation
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 X.
This Letter Strengthens us to Suffer Temptations, Saying: Temptations Are Messengers of Grace. Xaropes son tentaciones de la gracia mensajeros.
Resisting Distraction at Its Origin
“Be advised to turn quickly to your heart in search of God each time that something not to your liking occurs…Act like this: Enter the refuge of your heart where you will encounter God.” (SA 518)
“Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.” Isaiah 32:2 (NRSV)
“Isaiah says that the those who hide within are in the shade, meaning the power of God shelters them in the inner desert, from which the soul ascends straight up like a pillar of fragrant smoke, turning aside to no creature whatsoever.” (SA 518)
For me, temptation is whatever might distract us from our pursuit of the good. We might think of “the good” that we pursue in three general ways. There is the good that is present in the moment, there is the good that is needed from us in the moment, and there is the ultimate good of the divine presence. To be perceptive of the good of the present moment, to be intentional about the good that is needed from us, and to be lovingly aware of the divine presence is to abide in a recollected state. Of course, none of us are so perceptive, intentional, and aware that we are no longer distracted by temptation. It helps, then, to think of distraction as an opportunity to practice recollection. In this sense, temptation can be a “messenger of grace” because it reminds us to recollect.
For Osuna, the best approach for dealing with temptation/distraction is to enter into the refuge of the heart. In other words, one should recollect. Every distraction begins with a thought. The general practice of turning away from thoughts during prayer improves our ability to reject temptation at its origin. It is so much easier to reject distraction when it is a mere thought than it is after it has become a desire of the heart. The key, then, is to guard the heart where the divine dwells by dispelling distractions at their origination in the mind. By guarding the heart in this way, our pursuit of the good becomes an outflow of the heart since it originates from the divine goodness who dwells within us.
“At every hour and moment let us guard the heart with all diligence from thoughts that obscure the soul’s mirror; for in that mirror Jesus Christ, the wisdom and power of God the Father, is typified and luminously reflected…This is why our Lord Jesus Christ said that the kingdom of heaven is within us, indicating that the Divinity dwells in our hearts.” Philotheos of Sinai (TP 35)2
Francisco de Osuna The Third Spiritual Alphabet (Trans. Mary E. Giles; Preface Kieran Kavanaugh; Paulist Press, 1981)
The Philokalia Vol. 3 (Trans. and Ed. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, Kallistos Ware; Faber and Faber, Inc., 1995)