Practicing the Benedictine spirituality is a life of contemplative silent prayer, singing the Psalms, practicing 'Lexio Divina' scriptural meditations, and immersing oneself in the writings of the patristic fathers. All of life is to be lived and worked as a prayer to God. Above all, prayer is not asking God for things but learning simply to pray is to be in the presence of God.
I started this spiritual retreat reading Hans Urs Von Balthasar "My Work in Retrospect" and I ended the retreat by finishing the book. Here is how Balthasar ends his work:
1. We all start with a reflection on the situation of man. We quickly discover that we exist as limited beings in a limited world. We are not God and God has no need of the world. But if God has no need of the world, then why do we exist?
2. God is love and created us in the freedom to love in God's image. God created us as personal beings who need love and communion. God reveals himself to us by his Word and Spirit. Human reason must be open to the infinite and transcendent. Human knowing is always partial and limited.
3. The One, the True, and the beautiful all surpass reason and point to transcendent attributes. God is One and love and makes all things beautiful. Man exists only by interpersonal dialogue. Why then deny speech to being itself?
4. God is not silent and speaks. God mystically meets and communes with us. Like an epiphany, God appears! God enters into an alliance with us, a covenant where we do not chase after other gods and idols. How can God come and make himself understood to man?
5. The Holy Spirit and Christ's incarnation of love makes us one with God, ourselves, all people and the whole cosmos of creation. Trinitarian love disrupts our divisions and binary thinking and leads us into fullness and peace with reality. We enter the divine life through the Son of God who is the eternal icon of the Father. Our response is simply humble surrender, honest transparency, and vulnerable love.
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