Monthly Osuna: Letter Z
Being Is Enough
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 Z.
This Letter Speaks of the Solicitude We Should Have for Ourselves, Saying: Zealously Guard Yourself and You Will Unite Perfectly with God. Zela y guarda to persona, y mezclarás en todo a Dios.
Guarding Yourself
“The key to all knowledge is to know the purpose of each thing and to apply this key properly. In accord with this, we say the best physician is the one who applies medicine most effectively for certain illnesses. From this argument it follows that the entire purpose of spiritual discretion is to learn how to use the gifts of the Lord in conformity with his intention, applying them to what the Lord wishes to heal with them.” (SA 576)
In the first half of this letter, Osuna’s primary concern is that contemplatives not become distracted by a zealous focus on the faults or progress of others. Contemplative zeal is directed inward and is focused on being open to the healing presence that we encounter in the stillness and silence. Once we have developed a habit of recollection, our main task becomes simple: be attentive and open to the working of the divine Spirit within.
We can “zealously guard” ourselves by maintaining practice and our trust that divine love is working within us. As we sit, we might get the sense that we should be doing something, anything. Because our faculties are used to being busy, when we finally stop and settle in, they revolt and try to entice us into attending to this or that. Despite our best intentions, we will feel a need to do something since something must be done. But there is nothing to do.
It is enough to let things be for a few moments. It is enough to just be in the stillness and silence of the divine presence. God doesn’t really need our help to do what only God can do. All we need to do is trust that divine grace is at work. It is a distinct act of faith to rest in the divine presence, trusting that the source, guide, and goal of all creation is at work in us. That act of faith, however simple it might seem, is enough. So, another way we can zealously guard ourselves is by letting go of the faulty assumption that in order to be, we must do.
United With God
“The second half of this letter counsels us to unite perfectly with God, which we can do if we contemplate the Creator in all creatures. Recollection will not be impeded if we contemplate God through creation in light of the purpose that is essentially appropriate to divinity: to pervade all things and give them being and preserve them.” (SA 593)
Recollection will certainly not be impeded if we contemplate God through creation. There will be times when our awareness of the divine presence during recollection will effortlessly carry over into our everyday experience, but that might not always be the case. Osuna’s general point is helpful since we can be intentional about how we see the world, and we can do this by looking at it in a certain way. If we look for goodness, for instance, we will find it because something good is always present. The way we look at the world can affect how we see the world. And, in general, the creation can function as a sign, pointing us to its ineffable source so that we see God in all things.
Nevertheless, when I realize that I am distracted with the business of life, and I am not aware of God in all things, I can use some phrase or thought as a way of recalibrating my awareness. I might mentally say, “The divine goodness is everywhere.” In a sense, saying the phrase reminds me, and my awareness turns to the divine, who is always present with me. And, since there is no mental content with that awareness, I am now recollected in the moment. I am now aware of the divine while also attending to my daily tasks. Being recollected and united with God throughout our day-to-day activities is very much an act of remembering what we know through our practice.
“One should accept God in all things and should accustom themselves to having God always present in their disposition and intention and love.” Meister Eckhart (ME 252)2
Francisco de Osuna The Third Spiritual Alphabet (Trans. Mary E. Giles; Preface Kieran Kavanaugh; Paulist Press, 1981)
Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises, and Defense, Meister Eckhart (Trans. Edmund Colledge and Bernard McGinn; Paulist Press; 1981)