That’s the vision!
What drove me into poustinia was starvation for vision. And what kept me there was the daily exposure, indeed confrontation, with this darn Russian dame and her vision. Where did she get it? And why couldn’t I have some?
I must admit that I did not really believe Catherine Doherty when she would tell us that she had just come from an all-night struggle with faith on the floor of her poustinia. No, I did not believe her until I found myself on the floor of the poustinia all night, simply in order to survive another day in faith!
I didn’t even have to “fold the wings of my intellect” (as Catherine so often told us we must); mine were so broken I couldn’t even use them anymore!
Faith. Faith. Faith. And that’s the vision! Faith in God. Faith in the Church. Faith in Christ and his Mother. Faith in the sacraments. Faith in prayer. Faith in the New Commandment. Faith. Faith. Faith. There isn’t any other vision!
And yes, you do have to lay on the floor of your heart, night after night after night, before that vision becomes your own.
It isn’t “relevant ministry” or “prophetic witness” etc. etc. etc. It’s the light of the Gospel eeked out of the darkness of faith! That’s why Catherine had such a hard time trying to explain poustinia to us. Many of us looked upon it as our special prayer time, a place to go to get renewed in faith, something mystical that we were going to do for God to prove our honest desire for prayer or ministry.
Whatever of these it is, it is really that dark/light place of faith in our hearts where the Holy Spirit takes us to show us the vision of Christ. It’s where we go, as Fr. Bob Pelton said of Catherine in the introduction of the book Poustinia, to “stand on the edge of that darkness which threatens to overwhelm the earth” and become envisioned with absolute faith.
And, it doesn’t come from our puny intellects or prophetic feelings. It comes from the Absolute, when we finally realize that only God can envision us, and only when we want God above all our relevant ministries and prophetic witnesses.
Fr. Pat, (now deceased) wrote this for Restoration, in 1991.
[Image: Sobornost (detail) painting by ©Patrick Stewart, Madonna House.]
