They are called deadly because they stamp out life from our living. They are the thieves and murderers who beguile and trick us into believing their illusion is real. They are at the source of our separation from our intimate relationship with God, which is the source of our life. We are human and will commit each and every one of these. God is forgiving eternally and will forgive us for committing them. We can strive to overcome these human traits, but mostly that means we should practice the opposite virtues instead. That requires seeing the world from a most different perspective. The same challenges confront us living in the world or living in a monastery. Learning to practice the virtues is the real battle. (To see a full description scroll down below the prayer, or go to the page at our link:
Following is a prayer by Thomas Merton (OSB) asking for deliverance from these 7 illusions.
Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk, 20th Century
The following prayer is from his book, “New Seeds of Contemplation.” It is widely available. For Merton, the word illusion could be substituted freely for sin. This makes sense in many ways: we often lament our past sins and say, “How could I have not seen how horrible this was?” or “What was I thinking of?” Here is a prayer from his book:
Let me use all things for one sole reason: to find my joy in giving You glory.
Therefore, keep me, above all things, from sin. Keep me from the death of deadly sin which puts hell in my soul. Keep me from the murder of lust that blinds and poisons my heart. Keep me from the sins that eat a man’s flesh with irresistible fire until he is devoured. Keep me from loving money in which is hatred, from avarice [greed] and ambition that suffocate my life. Keep me from the dead works of vanity and the thankless labor in which artists destroy themselves for pride and money and reputation, and saints are smothered under the avalanche of their own importunate zeal. Staunch in me the rank wound of covetousness and the hungers that exhaust my nature with their bleeding. Stamp out the serpent envy that stings love with poison and kills all joy.
Untie my hands and deliver my heart from sloth. Set me free from the laziness that goes about disguised as activity when activity is not required of me, and from the cowardice that does what is not demanded, in order to escape sacrifice.
But give me the strength that waits upon You in silence and peace. Give me humility in which alone is rest, and deliver me from pride which is the heaviest of burdens. And possess my whole heart and soul with the simplicity of love. Occupy my whole life with the one thought and the one desire of love, that I may love not for the sake of merit, not for the sake of perfection, not for the sake of virtue, not for the sake of sanctity, but for You alone.
Thomas Merton, 1961, Gethsemani. Imprimatur Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York
The Seven Deadly Sins – A List of Capital Sins
(for more visit: http://whitestonejournal.com/index.php/seven-deadly-sins)
The table below lists The Seven Deadly Sins (vices) in the traditional order with the virtues against which they are sins. The history of this list goes back at least to Pope St. Gregory the Great and St. John Cassian, but while the list itself is not strictly biblical, the Bible proscribes all seven. If one or more of these doesn’t seem like a big sin to you, it almost certainly means you have already rationalized it. Work on that one first. By the way, there is no set list of virtues corresponding to these, what follows below reflect our choices.
If you need additional information on Dante’s views of these, it is after the table.
Deadly Sin * ** |
Opposing Virtue |
Brief description |
|---|---|---|
| Pride (1) (18%) |
Humility | Seeing ourselves as we are and not comparing ourselves to others is humility. Pride and vanity are competitive. If someone else’s pride really bothers you, you have a lot of pride. |
| Avarice/Greed (5) (5%) |
Generosity | This is about more than money. Generosity means letting others get the credit or praise. It is giving without having expectations of the other person. Greed wants to get its “fair share” or a bit more. |
| Envy (2) (5%) |
Love | “Love is patient, love is kind…” Love actively seeks the good of others for their sake. Envy resents the good others receive or even might receive. Envy is almost indistinguishable from pride at times. |
| Wrath/Anger (3) (20%) |
Kindness | Kindness means taking the tender approach, with patience and compassion. Anger is often our first reaction to the problems of others. Impatience with the faults of others is related to this. |
| Lust (7) (31%) |
Self control | Self control and self mastery prevent pleasure from killing the soul by suffocation. Legitimate pleasures are controlled in the same way an athlete’s muscles are: for maximum efficiency without damage. Lust is the self-destructive drive for pleasure out of proportion to its worth. Sex, power, or image can be used well, but they tend to go out of control. |
| Gluttony (6) (8%) |
Faith and Temperance | Temperance accepts the natural limits of pleasures and preserves this natural balance. This does not pertain only to food, but to entertainment and other legitimate goods, and even the company of others. |
| Sloth (4) (13%) |
Zeal | Zeal is the energetic response of the heart to God’s commands. The other sins work together to deaden the spiritual senses so we first become slow to respond to God and then drift completely into the sleep of complacency. |
Loreena McKennitt – Contemplative Soul Music
May 13th, 2010The Dark Night of the Soul, performed by Loreena McKennitt Loreena McKennitt performs a song called “Dark Night of the Soul” inspired by St. John of the Cross. She sings about the love of God and the pursuit of it in this song.
If you like ‘The Dark Night of the Soul’ and all that it implies, you should look into reading ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ by an anonymous author in 1375. There are more than a few present day English translations that make for a bit more easy reading than the 14th century English in which it was written. It speaks of the apophatic approach to ‘knowing’, trusting and allowing God. It is precisely pursuit of the internal mystical relationship with God via the path of allowing and consenting to God being with you through the vehicle of trust. The Dark Night of the Soul will make more sense after reading this! I have the olde english version here as a free download, and it can be bought on some of the web bookstores for only a few dollars. I am re-reading it after many times.
Tags: allowing God, clifford wolters, cloud, cloud of forgetting, cloud of unknowing, contemplative prayer, dark night of the soul, intent to consent, will to will, william johnston
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