Author: Saint Augustine |
Author: Teodoro Baztán, OAR |
Author: Lucilo Echazarreta Sarabia |
Returning to the heart
by OAR
For Saint Augustine, the heart is something more than a place or feeling; it deals with one’s proper identity, with his more profound reality, that which affirms him in his being, his most authentic interior reality. For this reason, it will be here where the word may have to have his dwelling, his reception, his rest, his most profound incarnation. It deals with his interior man and this is the identity that God gives him, when he is his own image. Saint Augustine will say:
«I am fully aware and I do not have the least of doubt that I love you, Lord. You have wounded my heart with your word and I have loved you. But heaven and earth and everything that is in them are saying from everywhere that I love you. And they do not cease to proclaim to all, so that they may be without excuse. (Rom. 1: 20)». (10)
«There are many things, which my heart aspires, within the present poverty of my life, shaken by the words of your Sacred Scripture. It normally happens that the insufficiency of human comprehension usually is abundant in words, since the search is more of a chatterer than a find, the demand is more extensive than its realization and the hand gets tired more of knocking at the door than in receiving.». (11)
«When you pray to God with psalms and hymns, live in the heart that which you say with the voice». (12)Therefore, if the hearts is indeed, that which is proper, the most intimate, that which is our very selves, prayer will strive not only to return to God, but to return to oneself, to return to one’s own heart and besides, the capacity to transcend oneself would be here. The Augustinian call to “return to one’s own heart” is a call to surrender oneself trustingly to God.
«From where the Apostle says: The illumined eyes of your heart (Eph. 1:18) Return to the heart; look at there that which sometimes you feel from God: the image of God is there. In this interior man dwells Christ, and in this interior man, you will be renewed according to the image of God; Know its creator in his image. Look at how all corporeal senses transmit to the center of the heart the impression that they receive from the outside . . . Have we not called? Has something been awaken in us, something that leads us to suspect, even if it may be lightly, from where does the light come to us? Brothers, I believe that to speak and to meditate on these things is to train ourselves». (13)
«I will not inhibit my lips; you know it, Lord. Let it not happen that the heart may believe, and because of fear, it may inhibit the lips to express that which it believed . . . Whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father; that is, I will not recognize him, since he who is ashamed to proclaim me before men is not worthy of being proclaimed before my Father. The lips utter that which is enclosed in the heart, in order to combat against fear. Let the heart contain that which the lips utter, in order combat against pretense. Then sometimes, in the presence of fear, do not dare to say what you know, what you believe; other times, you speak pretending, but in the heart you do not have such a thing. Let the lips be in conformity with your heart. You obtain peace from God; he will give it to you; let not that tendentious charge exist between your lips and your heart .. . . See, do not fear and do not inhibit your lips. Lord, you know, that my heart contains what the lips proclaim.» (14)The silent confession that Augustine makes before his God, will be like a shout of the desire of love. If he has said something good to God, it can be communicated to his listeners; he will say or we will say that which we have received before.
«Lord, I am well known to you as I am. On the other hand, I have manifested to you the finality that I persist in proclaiming you. (15)
Of course, it is not with words nor with carnal cries that I do it, but with words of the soul, with cries of the mind, which your ears know. When I am wicked, to proclaim you is not other than to feel a dislike of myself. And when I am pious, to proclaim you is no other than to attribute it to myself, because you, O Lord, bless the just (Ps. 5:13), but first you justify him when he is impious (Ps. 95:6) For this reason, my confession in your presence (Ps. 102:3), O my God, is at the same silenced and not. The voice remains silent, the heart cries. Nothing right I say that you might not have heard it from me before. It is more, nothing right they can hear from me, if you yourself has not told it to me before.» (16)Let not the lips be silenced and let the heart express with full intensity of affection that which one can express and clamor:
«When we pray to God with the mouth, when it may be necessary in silence, it must always be with the heart. The clamor of the heart is an intense thought that, when it is given in prayer, it expresses the great affection of the one who prays and asks, so that he might not lose hope of attaining that which he asks. It is sought with the whole heart when he is not distracted into some other thing». (17)
10 Confesiones X, 6, 8, p. 315.
11 Confesiones XII, 1, 1, p. 415.
12 Regla 2,3
13 Tratados sobre el Evangelio de San Juan 18, 10-11, T. XIII, p. 485.
14 Enarraciones sobre los Salmos 39, 16, T. XIX, pp. 743.744.745
15 Cf. Confesiones 2,3,5, 7,15, 4,1,1, 5,1,1, 9,12,13
16 Confesiones X, 2, 2, p. 310
17 Enarraciones 118, XXIX, 1, T. XXII, pp. 181-183.
¿What is prayer?
Listening to the Word
Prayer of Christ
Returning to the heart
Contemplation and union with Christ
Life and Gratitude
Praying is loving
Praying Our Father I
Praying Our Father II
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