PURITAS CORDIS

Purity of heart springs forth from the very womb, the very depth, the Heart of Christ.  The Desert Fathers sought 'puritas cordis';  as well as thousands more from generation to generation.  The meat of it strives toward ascetical perfection.

I admit, I, consciously, work inwardly and outwardly for puritas cordis, for total absorption of God within.  Indeed, each single action or thought or statement or carriage or manner of being, for me, is filtered through this lens of purity, to please the Holy, the solely Divine.  Lining up with Scriptural and Gospel tenets, how I try to aim for this impossible victory; and, as human, fail; and, as human, pick myself up through Grace and wind once more toward the singularity of sacredness each of us are promised.  

Thomas Merton says " .... this is the reason for the monk's existence ... puritas cordis". Admittedly, it is the reason for my existence.  The reason for my existence as nun is to become of flame of living love for the other, for the stranger, for the misfit, for the downcast, sorrowful, and heartbroken.  If puritas cordis is closely at all achieved through my insistency of will, through the grace of our Creator; it is for the other, through the cleansing of Self and 'the old man'.  As nun, ascetical practices are deliberated upon the premise that heaven can be touched on this earthly plane; that, God can be seen and heard here in this grounded experience we call earth; and that sacred union with Him is possible.  

This archaic, ancient code of purity exists within me.   Predicating our human efforts toward the Holy, seeking the One, the Sacred Being, the unspotted Lamb which washes me into the ultimate freedom called Love.   

Purity is nothing less than a Living fire, the constant furnace of love toward Neighbor; toward Christ; toward myself.  Puritas cordis is the incarnate acceptance of Goodness elected; of grace endowed with wisdom; of knowledge and action albeit bestowed with simple gifts of contemplation and quietude.  

Those are the strident tabs of Joy to which this nun seeks, runs, and labors ever forevermore.