Heart of the World – Conference 4 – Meditations on the Paschal Mystery with Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor

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Join Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor as they offer a type of “online retreat” based on the spiritual work Heart of the World written by Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar.

In fourth “conference” talk, Dr. Lilles reflects upon “Love – A Wilderness”

Here is the excerpt that is read in the conference:

We fall down and adore you. In the end, only you remain, O Heart at the Center! We are not. Whatever is good in us is you. What we ourselves are is negligible. We pass by before you and aspire to be nothing more than mirrors and windows for our brothers. Our setting before you is your rising over us: our merging into you and your entry into us. For still does our decline before you bear the figure of your own decline, and still does our guilty distance from you belong not to ourselves, since you have made it into a distance of your own, Sin has the form of redemption.

And so in the end you remain alone, all in all. You are one with yourself, and without losing yourself you pour yourself out into the many. By remaining in the multiplicity of the members, you bring them all home into the unity of the Body. your self-emptying, even unto uttermost weakness and the renouncing of love, is your deed of uttermost strength and immutable love , and when you are weakest and they all trample you like a worm, it is then you are the Hero and have trampled the serpent. For what is emptiness? What fullness? Which of them is real privation? When you are empty and thirst for fullness, the we, the Church, are your fulfillment. But you are always the fullness and we are the void, always, even when you are fatigued and spent with exhaustion, even then do we all receive from your fullness grace upon grace. Your Church is but a vessel, she is only your organ. You are the leaping fountain. And even if out of us also there springs up a stream into life everlasting, this is a draft which you gave, for only from you do streams of living water flow. And when you go through the world poor and gray, cloaked in the garments of the lowly and the disinherited, concealing yourself behind sinners and tax-collectors, and we absent-mindedly perform on you the eight works of mercy, even then you alone are the giver who has made love possible for us from both within and without.

You alone remain. You are all in all. Even if your love desires us in order to delight in twoness and in order to celebrate with us the mystery of begetting and conceiving, nevertheless it is always YOUR love in both instances, your love which both gives and is given, at once seed and womb, and, again, the child begotten is none other than you. If love needs two feet in order to walk, still the walker is but one person, and that one is you. And if love needs two lovers, a lover and a beloved, still the love is only one, and that one is you.

Everything hearkens back to your throbbing Heart. Time and the seasons still hammer away and create, and your Heart drives the world and all its happenings forward with great painful blows. It is the unrest of the clock, and your Heart is restless until it rests in me. Your Heart is restless until we rest in you, once time and eternity have become interfused. But: Be at peace! I have overcome the world. The torment of sin has already been submerged in the stillness of love. The experience of what the world is has made love darker, more fiery, more ardent. The shallower abyss of rebellion has been swallowed up in unfathomable mercy, and throbbing majestically reigns serene the Heart of God.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, Heart of the World (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1979), 217-219.

Here is the link to the Divine Mercy Prayer that Dr. Lilles mentions in the conference.

Though having the “Heart of the World” mentioned in this “retreat” is not necessary, we would encourage you at some to purchase this outstanding spiritual classic.

You find the book here

From the book description:

A great Catholic theologian speaks from the heart about the Heart of Christ, in a profound and lyrical meditation on Our Lord’s love for his Bride the Church.

Avid readers of Hans Urs von Balthasar often describe Heart of the World as a “surprise”. The “pure serenity of a volcano under snow” readers usually find in Balthasar, as translator Erasmo Leiva puts it, gives way to “the poet-theologian” who dares to “bare his own heart”. The sult is what can only be described as lyrical, even intimate spiritual reflections.

“Heart of the World”, the translator continues, “deserves a place next to
the Imitation of Christ. Especially in the passages where Christ speaks to the soul, Father von Balthasar shows himself a worthy successor of
Thomas a Kempis. Both works combine an intense personal piety with
a precise awareness of the believer’s position as child and servant of Christ’s Church…. For Balthasar, as for Kempis and all genuine Chris tians, the saint is first and foremost the one who renders constant thanks for having been loved.”

Heart of the World is a profound and theologically rich reflection on the
Heart of God.

Anthony Lilles, S.T.D. is the St. Patrick’s Seminary & University in Menlo Park, CA. He has served the Church and assisted in the formation of clergy since 1994, and now previously served in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as Academic Dean of St. John’s Seminary, associate professor of theology and Academic Advisor of Juan Diego House. The son of a California farmer, married with young adult children, he holds a BA in theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville with both the ecclesiastical licentiate and doctorate in spiritual theology from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome (the Angelicum). He was a founding faculty member of Saint John Vianney Seminary in Denver where he also served as academic dean, department chair, director of liturgy and coordinator of spiritual formation for the permanent deacon program. He has recently published Hidden Mountain Secret Garden, Omaha: Discerning Hearts (2012)

Heart of the World – Conference 3 – Meditations on the Paschal Mystery with Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:00 — 24.1MB) | Embed

Join Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor as they offer a type of “online retreat” based on the spiritual work Heart of the World written by Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar.

In third “conference” talk, Dr. Lilles reflects upon “Jailhouse and Cocoon”

Here is the excerpt that is read in the conference:

YOU ARE IN PRISON and I am in prison. I know, Lord, that you are in your prison for my sake and that you remain in yours only because I remain in mine. Both of them belong together; both are one and the same dungeon. If you could succeed in freeing me from my confinement, you too would be free. The dividing wall between us would topple and we would – both enjoy the same freedom. I, too, could perhaps free you by freeing myself, and in this case as well we would both be freed. But that’s just it! This is precisely what you can’t do and what I myself can’t do.

I know your secret; you want to share my destiny. But I am deeply buried within myself and I cannot burst open the gates to this hell. You thought it would be easier for two, and you offered to help me. You buried yourself in my cave. But, because my solitude is lonely, yours also became lonely. And now we wait one for the other, separated by this wall. I well know that the fault lies with me, and not at all with you. You have done everything that was possible. you have suffered, made atonement in my place, paid for everything in advance, down to the last drop, But there is one th1ng you can’t do, and this is something I can’t do either. I should . . . but I cannot. I should want to, but I don’t. I wish I could want to but I don’t want to want to. How do things stand’ then? How can this be? I don’t understand it. They say you blotted out sin and made atonement for it. They say you effaced sin, not just covered it over, and that henceforth it no longer exists in the eyes of God. And yet sin is precisely this: that I do not want what God wants. And I can’t see how this opposition on my part could be broken. I can’t see how this prison wall which holds me captive could be pierced through.

Do you know what I mean, Lord? It isn’t easy to explain this to you. For I myself don’t know exactly how it occurs, how all of this fits together. When I reflect upon it, it’s like knotted briars and my soul gets trapped in them. My soul is like the young lamb that wandered off among the thorns. I’ll try to tell you how it happened.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, Heart of the World (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1979), 133-134.

Here is the link to the Jesus, You Take Over prayer that Dr. Lilles mentions in the conference.

Though having the “Heart of the World” mentioned in this “retreat” is not necessary, we would encourage you at some to purchase this outstanding spiritual classic.

You find the book here

From the book description:

A great Catholic theologian speaks from the heart about the Heart of Christ, in a profound and lyrical meditation on Our Lord’s love for his Bride the Church.

Avid readers of Hans Urs von Balthasar often describe Heart of the World as a “surprise”. The “pure serenity of a volcano under snow” readers usually find in Balthasar, as translator Erasmo Leiva puts it, gives way to “the poet-theologian” who dares to “bare his own heart”. The sult is what can only be described as lyrical, even intimate spiritual reflections.

“Heart of the World”, the translator continues, “deserves a place next to
the Imitation of Christ. Especially in the passages where Christ speaks to the soul, Father von Balthasar shows himself a worthy successor of
Thomas a Kempis. Both works combine an intense personal piety with
a precise awareness of the believer’s position as child and servant of Christ’s Church…. For Balthasar, as for Kempis and all genuine Chris tians, the saint is first and foremost the one who renders constant thanks for having been loved.”

Heart of the World is a profound and theologically rich reflection on the
Heart of God.

Heart of the World – Conference 2 Part 2 – Meditations on the Paschal Mystery with Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:22 — 22.3MB) | Embed

Join Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor as they offer a type of “online retreat” based on the spiritual work Heart of the World written by Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar.

In part two of this second “conference” talk, Dr. Lilles reflects upon “The Coming of the Light”

Here is the excerpt that is read in the conference:

Do not take offense, you branches, at the deformity of your trunk. Do not scorn the powerlessness that strengthens you. For in me death is at work, but in you, life. You are sated, you have already become rich; without me you have attained to lordship. Were it only true lordship, then could I reign in you! But while you are strong, I am still weak; and at the same time as you make a show of your honors, I am despised. To this very hour I suffer hunger and thirst, nakedness and blows. I am the homeless one who slaves away at the work of his hands. I am the accused one who blesses, the persecuted who bears it patiently, the slandered consoler, the world’s refuse. Still today, as always, I am the draining dishwater in which you all wash. And just as you despise me, so you despise my disciples and emissaries, for in them also the same law of weakness is at work. And because all life has its origin in the impotence and even disgrace. I have appointed the last place for them, as if they were evildoers condemned to death. But just as I live from the power of God after being crucified in weakness, so too will they prove themselves to you to be alive in me with the power of God. For look: in them my life has begun to circulate and to bring them to ripeness as my firstfruits. Just as the strawberry plant sends out long shoots which soon form roots and finally produce a new plant, so too have I multi plied my inner center and established new centers in hearts sprung from mine. My children become fathers and new communities blossom from the blood of my Apostles’ hearts. For my grace is always fruitful, and my gift it is for you to pass my grace on. My treasure is to be found in prodigality, and only he possesses me who gives me away. For I am indeed the Word, and how can one possess a word other than by speaking it?

Hans Urs von Balthasar, Heart of the World (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1979), 82-83.

Though having the “Heart of the World” mentioned in this “retreat” is not necessary, we would encourage you at some to purchase this outstanding spiritual classic.

You find the book here

From the book description:

A great Catholic theologian speaks from the heart about the Heart of Christ, in a profound and lyrical meditation on Our Lord’s love for his Bride the Church.

Heart of the World – Conference 2 Part 1 – Meditations on the Paschal Mystery with Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:31 — 36.1MB) | Embed

Join Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor as they offer a type of “online retreat” based on the spiritual work Heart of the World written by Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar.

In part one of this second “conference” talk, Dr. Lilles reflects upon “The Coming of the Light”

Here is the excerpt that is read in the conference:

The Word, however, came from above. It came from the fullness of the Father. In the Word there was no urge since it was itself the fullness. In him was light and life and love without lust, love which had compassion for the void, willing to fill up what was hollow. But it was the essence of the void itself to press on to fullness. It was a menacing void, a chasm fitted with teeth. The light came into the darkness, but the darkness had no eye for the light: it had only jaws. The light came to illumine those who sit in the shadow of tombs, and such illumination required that the radiance of the light be recognized and that one be oneself transformed into streaming light. This would mean the death of the urge and its resurrection as love.

Man wants to soar up, but the Word wants to descend. Thus will the two meet half-way, in the middle, in the place of the Mediator. But they will cross like swords cross; their wills are opposed to one another. For God and man are related in a manner far different from man and woman: in no way do they complete one another. And we may not say that, to show his fullness, God needs the void, as man needs fullness to nourish his void. Nor that God descends so that man may ascend. If this were the mediation, then man would indeed have swallowed God’s love up into himself, but only as fodder and fuel for his addictive urge. His will to power would finally have over. powered God, and thus the Word would be strangled and the darkness would not have grasped it. And man’s final condition would be worse than his first, for he would have encircled in the narrow spell of his ego not only his fellow-man, but also the Creator himself, degrading him to the role of a lever for his egotistic yearning.

But if, rather, they were really to encounter one another, what road had to be followed? The darkness had to become brighter; blind urge had to pass over into a love that sees; and the clever will to possess and develop had to be transfigured into the foolish wisdom that pours itself out. And then a new instruction was issued: instead of going past God’s Word in its descent and pursuing the rash ascent to the Father, we are now to turn around and, along with the Word, go back down the steps we have climbed, find God on the road to the world, on no road other than that by which the Son journeys on towards the Father. For only love redeems. Yet, what love is God only knows, for God is love. There are not two sorts of love. There is not, alongside God’s love, another, human love. Rather, when God so determines and he proclaims his Word, love then descends, love then flows out into the void, and God has set up his claim and his emblem over every love.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, Heart of the World (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1979), 39-41.

Though having the “Heart of the World” mentioned in this “retreat” is not necessary, we would encourage you at some to purchase this outstanding spiritual classic.

You find the book here

From the book description:

A great Catholic theologian speaks from the heart about the Heart of Christ, in a profound and lyrical meditation on Our Lord’s love for his Bride the Church.

Heart of the World – Conference 1 – Meditations on the Paschal Mystery with Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor

Heart of the World – Meditations on the Paschal Mystery with Dr. Anthony Lilles

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:46 — 39.7MB) | Embed

Join Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor as they offer a type of “online retreat” based on the spiritual work Heart of the World written by Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar.

In this first “conference” talk, Dr. Lilles discusses, as a primer for the retreat, the teachings of Fr. von Balthasar found in Christian Mediation.

Dr. Lilles will talk about the disposition for entering into prayer during this particular time. He will discuss the nature of “spiritual exercises” as expressed by St. Ignatius of Loyola

Dr. Lilles will offer solid direction about entering into mental prayer during this “retreat” time and how to experience the encounter with the Word.

He will also offer suggestions for further reading for this grace-filled time and how to create a space for prayer given the circumstances you mind find yourself.

He would especially encourage the listener to read The Gospel of John 13 – 19 during this time.

Though having the books mentioned in this “retreat” are not necessary, we would encourage you at some to purchase these outstanding spiritual classics.

You find the paperback book and ebook discussed in this first conference here

From the book description:

When it comes to meditation the decisive question, according to Hans Urs von Balthasar, is whether God has spoken or “whether the Absolute remains the Silence beyond all words”. Christianity claims God has spoken, and spoken fully, in his Son, the Word made flesh. While God remains mysterious, he is not utterly unknown or unknowable.

Von Balthasar insists through Christian meditation we enter with mind and heart into God’s self-disclosure. In Jesus, God reveals his own inner depths to us. At the same time, because Jesus is God-made-man, he also reveals our inner depths to ourselves.

Christian Meditation is at once a book about what meditation is, in light of God’s revelation, and a book that assists believers to meditate. In a treatment that is both fresh and profound, von Balthasar describes the central elements of all Christian meditation, provides a guide for meditation and then points the way to the union that prayer achieves in the footsteps of Mary, within the Church and in and for the world.

You find the book here

From the book description:

A great Catholic theologian speaks from the heart about the Heart of Christ, in a profound and lyrical meditation on Our Lord’s love for his Bride the Church.

Avid readers of Hans Urs von Balthasar often describe Heart of the World as a “surprise”. The “pure serenity of a volcano under snow” readers usually find in Balthasar, as translator Erasmo Leiva puts it, gives way to “the poet-theologian” who dares to “bare his own heart”. The sult is what can only be described as lyrical, even intimate spiritual reflections.

“Heart of the World”, the translator continues, “deserves a place next to
the Imitation of Christ. Especially in the passages where Christ speaks to the soul, Father von Balthasar shows himself a worthy successor of
Thomas a Kempis. Both works combine an intense personal piety with
a precise awareness of the believer’s position as child and servant of Christ’s Church…. For Balthasar, as for Kempis and all genuine Chris tians, the saint is first and foremost the one who renders constant thanks for having been loved.”

Heart of the World is a profound and theologically rich reflection on the
Heart of God.