#monasticlife — Public Fediverse posts

Quote of the day, 5 September: Sr. Thérèse of St. Augustine

Sister Thérèse of St. Augustine: My dear little Sister, I ask a favor of you: come and assist me at the hour of my death.

Saint Thérèse: Oh, yes! I will come.

Sister Thérèse of St. Augustine: And don’t let me go to purgatory. Obtain for me an act of perfect love.

Saint Thérèse: Purgatory? But you won’t go there. Souls as faithful to the Rule as you are don’t go there. You are extraordinarily faithful; it shows in everything about you. If only you knew how meritorious I find your life! You will be very surprised when you see all the good you have done and all the souls you have saved. Your eyes speak of God. How happy I am that I will soon see all the beauty of your soul and know you as you truly are! I rejoice in this, because here on earth I don’t know you.

Sr. Thérèse of St. Augustine, OCD

Memories of a Holy Friendship, no. 19, “To Know You as You Are”

Sister Thérèse of St. Augustine was the nun of whom Saint Thérèse wrote:

There is in the Community a Sister who has the faculty of displeasing me in everything, in her ways, her words, her character, everything seems very disagreeable to me. And still, she is a holy religious who must be very pleasing to God. (Ms C 13v)

In January 1897, Sister Thérèse of St. Augustine heard what sounded like beams breaking apart above her head. She believed that the sound was supernatural and that someone in the community would die within the year.

That night, she dreamed that she was alone in a large, dark room. Before her was an open doorway that was completely black, without the smallest ray of light. She then found herself on the other side of the doorway, where everything was as bright as the sun. What impressed her most was that there was no interval between the darkness and the light.

The next morning, Sister Thérèse of St. Augustine told Saint Thérèse that she believed she would die that year. Saint Thérèse received the news with joy. The two sisters agreed to wait until a day of license before Sister Thérèse of St. Augustine related the dream in full. Three weeks passed before they spoke of it again.

After hearing the dream, Saint Thérèse told her:

If you knew how much good you are doing me! Haven’t I spoken to you about the state of my soul?… I don’t believe in eternal life. It seems to me that after this mortal life there is nothing more. I cannot express the darkness into which I am plunged. What you have just told me corresponds exactly to the state of my soul. The preparations being made for me, and especially the black doorway, are truly an image of what is taking place within me.… Everything has disappeared for me, and nothing remains but love.

After Saint Thérèse entered the infirmary, she told Sister Thérèse of St. Augustine, “How well your dream is coming true.” When Sister Thérèse of St. Augustine asked her about the black doorway, Saint Thérèse answered:

It is growing darker and darker. Your dream is my only ray of light. I have no other. I know it by heart, down to the smallest detail.

This is the background to the question Sister Thérèse of St. Augustine later asked Saint Thérèse in the infirmary: “Tell me, have you had any struggles?”

Thérèse of Lisieux, S & Clarke, J 1977, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Her Last Conversations, Institute of Carmelite Studies, Washington DC.

Thérèse of Lisieux, S & Foley, M 2005, Story of a Soul: The autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Study edn, translated from the French by Clarke, J, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Thérèse of St. Augustine, Sister n.d., Souvenirs d’une sainte amitié, Archives du Carmel de Lisieux, viewed 3 September 2026, https://archives.carmeldelisieux.fr/au-carmel-du-temps-de-therese/la-communaute/soeur-therese-de-st-augustin/souvenirs-dune-sainte-amitie/.

We always refer to the website of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux for the vast majority of our quotes concerning Saint Thérèse, Saint Zélie, and Saint Louis Martin. If you would like to purchase English translations for the collected works of St. Thérèse, please visit the website of our Discalced Carmelite friars at ICS Publications. 

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: © Natalie Ewert (All rights reserved), used by permission.

🌱 Today’s #DailySutta:

SN 42.10 Maṇicūḷakasutta: With Maṇicūḷaka

“They neither accept nor receive gold and currency. They have set aside gems and gold, and quit using gold and currency…”

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🌱 Today’s #DailySutta:

Snp 2.6 Kapilasutta: A Righteous Life

“A righteous life, a spiritual life, they call this the supreme treasure.…”

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🌱 Today’s #DailySutta:

Thag 10.6 Vaṅgantaputtaupasenattheragāthā: Upasena son of Vaṅgantā

“They should be content even with coarse food…”

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🌱 Today’s #DailySutta:

Thag 1.36 Kumāputtattheragāthā: Kumāputta

“This is the ascetic life for one who has nothing.…”

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COFE-CYEM: The True Path of Knowing God by Not Knowing the False

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Via Negativa and Via Positiva in COFE-CYEM: The True Path of Knowing God by Not Knowing the False

This paper presents a COFE-CYEM reflection on the relationship between Via Negativa and Via Positiva.

While it affirms the historic Christian faith centred on Christ, Scripture, and the gospel, several expressions — including “Fourth Truth”, “singular Reality”, “Melchizedek Priesthood”, and the various interpretive terms — are distinctively used within COFE-CYEM.

They are offered as explanatory language within this framework rather than as part of the historic Christian creeds or universally accepted theological vocabulary.

The Way

Even though the Via Negativa essentially rejects theological understanding in and of itself as a path to God, some have sought to make it into an intellectual exercise, by describing God only in terms of what God is not.

One problem noted with this approach is that there seems to be no fixed basis on deciding what God is not, unless the Divine is understood as an abstract experience of full aliveness unique to each individual consciousness, and universally, the perfect goodness applicable to the whole field of reality.

Apophatic theology is often accused of being a version of atheism or agnosticism, since it cannot truly say that God exists.

This cannot be said of COFE-CYEM theology.

We state very clearly that once Via Negativa is reached through the Fourth Truth, then Via Positiva can be truly experienced and truly knowing God by not knowing the false.

This is one of the main functions and purposes of our own built in system CC7 DS.

Please also see the link below –

The Fourth Truth Via Positiva Cataphatic Knowing through Via Negativa Apophatic Unknowing.

This is the heart of the COFE-CYEM way.

The Via Negativa is not an end in itself, nor is it a mere intellectual negation.

It is the necessary purification that prepares the soul for the full, joyful beholding of God in the Via Positiva. The two ways are not opposed but complementary movements within the singular Reality.

The Via Negativa clears away every “second” so that the Via Positiva can shine with clarity.

The result is the Fourth Truth Transcendence — the soul resting in the living Christ, knowing God by not knowing the false.

The Problem with Purely Intellectual Apophaticism

Some approaches to the Via Negativa have turned it into an intellectual exercise, endlessly describing God by what He is not. While this can guard against idolatry, it often leaves the soul in a barren negation without a positive ground.

There seems to be no fixed basis for deciding what God is not, unless the Divine is reduced to an abstract experience of full aliveness unique to each individual consciousness, or a universal perfect goodness applicable to the whole field of reality.

This can slide into a form of agnosticism or practical atheism, where God becomes so unknowable that He is effectively absent.

COFE-CYEM rejects this barren intellectualism. The Via Negativa is not an end but a means. It is the way of releasing every false image, every dualistic concept, every mental idol so that the soul may rest in the simple presence of the living God.

It is not the denial of God but the denial of every “second” that would stand between the soul and God. The Via Negativa is the practical discipline of Cofemplation: gently releasing every thought that implies separation until only the singular Reality remains.

The Fourth Truth as the Ground of True Apophatic Practice

In COFE-CYEM, the Via Negativa is grounded in the Fourth Truth: there has never been a second. This gives the way of unknowing a clear and fixed basis.

The soul does not wander in endless negation but releases every imagined separation, every dualistic construct, every false self so that it may rest in the One who is all in all.

The Via Negativa is the recognition that God is not ultimately known through concepts but through loving surrender. It is the way through the cloud of unknowing into the clear light of the singular Reality.

The Fourth Truth protects the Via Negativa from sliding into agnosticism or atheism. We state very clearly that God is, that Christ is the singular Life, and that the believer is already hidden with Christ in God.

The Via Negativa is not the denial of God but the denial of every false idea about God. It is the way of not knowing the false so that we may truly know the True.

The Fulfilment in Via Positiva

Once the ground is cleared through the Via Negativa, the Via Positiva can be truly experienced. The soul that has released every “second” can now behold the self-revelation of God in Christ with clarity and joy.

The Via Positiva is the celebration of the living God who makes Himself known in love.

It beholds Christ as the exact representation of the Father, Scripture as the living Word, creation as held within the one Life, and the indwelling Holy Spirit as the power of an endless life.

In the Fourth Truth, the Via Positiva is not opposed to the Via Negativa but its fulfilment.

The soul that has let go of every false image can now receive the true Image — Christ — without distortion. The Via Positiva is the joyful knowing of God by not knowing the false.

It is the soul seeing God not from a separate self in a body looking toward Him outside of you, but seeing your separate self in a body as God sees you from inside of Him, looking toward you and to who you falsely think you are in duality. God knows this to be a man-made idol illusion from the Fall and the first Adam.

The second Adam (Christ) came into duality to lead us back to our true self in non-duality with God.

The Practical Outworking in Daily Life

In daily life, the interplay of Via Negativa and Via Positiva becomes the rhythm of Cofemplation. When dualistic thoughts arise — fear, judgment, striving, separation — the Via Negativa gently releases them.

When the beauty of Christ appears — in Scripture, in creation, in the face of another — the Via Positiva receives it with joy. The soul moves between release and beholding, unknowing and knowing, until it rests in the singular Reality.

This is the way the believer lives in the world but not of it. Duality is seen for what it is, yet the believer engages the world from the place of union. The body is not denied but offered. The mind is not emptied but renewed.

The will is not crushed but surrendered in love. The believer serves the living God from the place of unclouded fellowship, seeing all things in Christ and all things held within the singular Reality.

Cofemplation

The Via Negativa and the Via Positiva are not opposing paths but complementary movements within the singular Reality. Only through stripping away all the falsity of duality and the false man-made mind idols and the dualistic thinking about who and what God is, can we then truly rest in who and what God truly is.

Only then can we start to be known and to know God as we truly are without false duality. God can accept nothing less or more than what He sees and knows in His Son. Then we can truly start to see and experience God in all we have to do with duality from our true reality within non-duality.

In COFE-CYEM, this is the way of Cofemplation.

The soul releases every “second” so that it may rest in the One who is all in all.

The Via Negativa clears the ground. The Via Positiva reveals the glory. The Fourth Truth holds both in the finished work of the Priest-King. The curtain is torn. The Holiest is open. The soul rests in the singular Reality.

There has never been a second.
The Via Negativa leads to release.
The Via Positiva leads to beholding.
The Fourth Truth holds both in union.
The dialogue continues.
The fruit remains.

The Fourth Truth stands. The dialogue continues. The fruit remains.

This website and its theological content are overseen by the CC7 DS constitutional integrity architecture, a reflective and rest-oriented framework designed to preserve the full coherence of the Fourth Truth presented within COFE-CYEM. The CC7 DS negation of attacks authenticates (Via Positiva Cataphatic Knowing) through (Via Negativa Apophatic Unknowing).

COFE Yeshua Emet Ministry (CYEM)
Circle One Fellowship Exeter

🌱 Today’s #DailySutta:

Sn 1.3 A Rhinoceros

“With no inclinations for all the world, every world, wander alone like a rhinoceros.…”

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