A MODEL of HOLY ABANDONMENT A Theological Reflection on the Spirituality of Father Gaspar Bertoni Rev. Nello Dalle Vedove, CSS Doctorate Thesis - 1961 Original Title in Italian: Il Modello di Sant’ Abbandono Translator into English: Rev. Joseph C. Henchey, CSS Electronic Edition: Tereza Lopes [Lay Stigmatine] 2003 A MODEL OF HOLY ABANDONMENT OPENING THOUGHT 2 O admirable secrets of divine love! What profound depths of His charity! When will it be that we will as though ship- wrecked and abandoned in this Immense Sea, so that we will no longer seek out the shores of our wretched earth! Letter of St. Gaspar Bertoni to Mother Leopoldina Naudet – November 26, 1812. A MODEL OF HOLY ABANDONMENT TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 TABLE of CONTENTS Letter from Thesis Director: Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP 7 Introduction 8 PART I GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF Fr. GASPAR BERTONI’S SPIRITUALITY 11 Chapter 1 Creatures find their Natural Resting Place in the Arms of the Creator 1. Humility and Abandonment are harmonized in the Concept of Creation. 2. Being is a Gift of the Creator. 3. Grace places the Soul in a most intimate Rapport with the Creator. 4. The Grace of Priesthood is an Effect of Creative Omnipotence. Chapter 2 Creatures are ordained for the Glory of God 1. The Compelling Desire for the Glory of God. 2. Rational Beings are called to glorify God through Knowledge and Love. 3. God’s Glory must first of all be sought in Oneself. 4. Zeal for the Glory of God needs to be inserted in the plan established by Divine Providence. Chapter 3 The Quest for the Glory of God implies the Exercise of the Most Perfect Love 1. Love is based on Proportion, or Likeness. 2. God’s Love for Creatures is entirely without Self-interest. 3. The Pure and True Love of a Creature for God is bereft of all Personal Self-Interest. 4. God’s Will is Lovable in Itself. Chapter 4 The Continual Quest for the Glory of God Transforms Life into an On-Going Act of Religion 1. The Task of Religion in the Spiritual life. 2. Devotion is the Principal Act of Religion. 3. The Continual Presence of God. 4. Religion suggests the Proper Attitude during Prayer. Chapter 5 The Spirit of Piety 1. The Gift of Piety inspires a Person with Tenderness toward the Heavenly Father. 2. Abandonment into the Arms of the Heavenly Father is proper to the Spirit of Holy Childhood. 3. The Spirit of Piety makes Union with God both Easy and Most Palatable. A MODEL OF HOLY ABANDONMENT TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 Chapter 6 The Gift of Fear 1. Fear is a Valid Aid for Love and also for Piety. 2. The Principal Act of Fear is Subjection to God. 3. The Gift of Fear makes one tremble before the Priestly Dignity. 4. The Secondary Act of Fear of the Lord is Flight from Sin. 5. Delicacy of Conscience is a Fruit of the Gift of Fear. Chapter 7 The Virtue of Holy Abandonment 1. Hope that is reinforced by the Gift of Fear perfects the Soul’s Abandonment. 2. Fear that implies Hope is not Holy. 3. The Solicitous Care of Providence renders Unjust Any Anxiety whatsoever. PART II Fr. GASPAR BERTONI’S ASCETICISM 58 Chapter 1 Effective Poverty 1. The Asceticism of Abandonment demands Indifference with respect to the Goods of this World and the Complete Renunciation of One’s Own Will. 2. Attachment to the Goods of this World is a Sad Wound for Any Priest. 3. The Apostle has to embrace Effective Poverty. 4. An Absolute Gratuity for All Ecclesiastical Ministries and the Renunciation of Spontaneous Offerings. Chapter 2 Holy Indifference 1. Holy Indifference is an Indispensable Element of Holy Abandonment. 2. The Extension of Indifference. 3. The Gifts of Knowledge and Wisdom lead to Indifference for Whatever is not God. 4. Indifference implies total ‘Death’ of a Person. Chapter 3 The Sacrifice of the Intelligence 1. The Renunciation of One’s Own Manner of Thinking. 2. His Cleverness in Hiding One’s Own Talents. Chapter 4 The Sacrifice of the Will 1. Obedience clears the Last Obstacle from the Way that leads to Union with God. 2. Obedience to Superiors disposes One to Docility with God. A MODEL OF HOLY ABANDONMENT TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 PART III Fr. GASPAR BERTONI’S MYSTICISM 82 Chapter 1 The ‘Consolation’ of the Holy Spirit is An Indication of the Elevated Union with God 1. The Human Soul can be drawn by God even without Any Method. 2. Spiritual Consolation corresponds to the Sweetness of the Fruits and to the Beatitude of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 2 The Night of the Senses and the Spirit Constituted by Desolation 1. The Removal of Consolation and the Permission of Trials. 2. The Effects of Desolation. 3. Various Kinds of Trials and Temptations. Chapter 3 The Purification of the Virtues 1. Patience in Persecutions. 2. Abandonment to God in Illness. 3. Humility. 4. Faith. 5. Hope. 5, Charity. Chapter 4 The General Call to the Highest Degrees of Mystical Union 1. The Night of the Spirit disposes One for Transforming Union. 2. The Normal Development of Grace leads to Highest Union with God. Chapter 5 Mystical Gifts 1. The True Graces of Prayer are accompanied by Solid Virtue. 2. The Sentiment of the Presence of God. 3. The Gift of Tears. 4. Revelations and Ecstasy. PART IV Fr. GASPAR BERTONI’S HOLY ABANDONMENT 133 Chapter 1 Holy Abandonment is a Superior Form of Confidence and Hope in God 1. Holy Abandonment guarantees a Tranquil Awaiting of the Future Life and of All that leads to it. 2. The Theological Foundation of Holy Abandonment is Hope and Trust in God. 3. Holy Abandonment gives Security even when All Human Supports are missing. A MODEL OF HOLY ABANDONMENT TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 Chapter 2 In Abandonment, it is necessary to leave All Up to God . 1. Holy Abandonment renders more Docile Instruments in the Hand of God. 2. Holy Abandonment does not exclude Work and Personal Effort. Chapter 3 Abandonment and Prudence 1. Abandonment is a Fruit of the Gift of Counsel. 2. Rules of Prudence. 3. The Most Perfect Form of Abandonment is that practiced by the Church. 4. The Angel of Counsel. Chapter 4 Abandonment in the Foundation of the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata of Our Lord Jesus Christ 1. The Work of God Alone. 2. The Foundation of the Marian Oratories. 3. The Stigmatine Congregation is glimpsed in the Commentary of the 1 st Book of Kings attributed to St, Gregory the Great. 4. The Practice of Holy Abandonment in Confident Waiting, and in the Progressive Realization of the Work. 5. The Spirit of Holy Abandonment was codified in the Rules of the Congregation. Chapter 5 Abandonment during Twenty Years of His Sickness and in His Death 1. Values in Suffering. 2. The School of God. 3. Unchanged Abandonment in God. 4. His Final Fiat. CONCLUSION 165 † ††† † A MODEL OF HOLY ABANDONMENT LETTER FROM THESIS DIRECTOR 7 Letter from Thesis Director The ANGELICUM Salita del Grillo, 1 Rome May 19, 1951 Reverend Father, It is with much interest that I have read your study on the Spirituality of Gaspar Bertoni, the Founder of your religious family. I was particularly struck by what you have stated concerning his humility and his abandonment to Divine Providence. I am pleased that you have insisted on what it is that distinguishes the infused moral virtues, and the acquired moral virtues. Likewise, you have done well in bringing out the importance of the passive purification of the senses and of the spirit. These chapters will serve, I hope, for the glorification of your [Venerable] father and Founder. This is a matter on which generally there is not enough insistence in the study of the heroicity of the Servants of God. It is even said sometimes in the biographies of this, or that Servant of God, there are indeed some manifest signs of the heroicity of their virtues – but, unfortunately there are also two periods in their lives that have remained quite obscure. And very often, it is not known how they passed through these times. This constitutes a difficulty understanding their spirituality. There are, in fact, often in the lives of Saints two obscure periods, like two dark ‘tunnels’. They are what St. John of the Cross calls the Dark Night of the Senses - or the Passive Purification of the Senses. This indicates the entrance into the Illuminative Way of the proficient. Then, there is the Dark Night of the Spirit - the Passive Purification of the Spirit, prior to the beginning of the Unitive Way of the Perfect. It is clear that these Servants of God in their leaving the first tunnel- and even more so on their leaving of the second – have practiced virtues in an heroic manner. This is a sign that when they were going through these ‘tunnels’, they have not deviated from the path set out for them. If, though, they may have briefly done so – as St. Peter did during the Lord’s Passion – without delay they then returned to their ordeal. Furthermore, while passing through the ‘tunnels’, far from withdrawing from them, the have earned very great merits. This is so in particular for their heroic resistance to the temptations of the Devil – both against those virtues that are found in the sensitive part of the soul, and against the theological virtues. Thus, the obscurity that seemed to be an objection to the full understanding of their lives is rather a sign that they have truly passed through these two Dark Nights, with very great spiritual profit for themselves and for the souls entrusted to them.