#nuns — Public Fediverse posts

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

*

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

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

*

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

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

*

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

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

*

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

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

*

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

"There are other spaces to build on that don’t eradicate our material connection to what are still painful and intergenerationally harmful past."
~ ‪@lauramca.bsky.social
https://bsky.app/profile/lauramca.bsky.social/post/3mqcklectf222

#SacredHeart #nuns #beliefs #memory #Bessborough #Blackrock #Cork #history #archeology #MotherAndBaby

"There are other spaces to build on that don’t eradicate our material connection to what are still painful and intergenerationally harmful past."
~ ‪@lauramca.bsky.social
https://bsky.app/profile/lauramca.bsky.social/post/3mqcklectf222

#SacredHeart #nuns #beliefs #memory #Bessborough #Blackrock #Cork #history #archeology #MotherAndBaby

"There are other spaces to build on that don’t eradicate our material connection to what are still painful and intergenerationally harmful past."
~ ‪@lauramca.bsky.social
https://bsky.app/profile/lauramca.bsky.social/post/3mqcklectf222

#SacredHeart #nuns #beliefs #memory #Bessborough #Blackrock #Cork #history #archeology #MotherAndBaby

"There are other spaces to build on that don’t eradicate our material connection to what are still painful and intergenerationally harmful past."
~ ‪@lauramca.bsky.social
https://bsky.app/profile/lauramca.bsky.social/post/3mqcklectf222

#SacredHeart #nuns #beliefs #memory #Bessborough #Blackrock #Cork #history #archeology #MotherAndBaby

"There are other spaces to build on that don’t eradicate our material connection to what are still painful and intergenerationally harmful past."
~ ‪@lauramca.bsky.social
https://bsky.app/profile/lauramca.bsky.social/post/3mqcklectf222

#SacredHeart #nuns #beliefs #memory #Bessborough #Blackrock #Cork #history #archeology #MotherAndBaby

Quote of the day, 4 July: Mother Clare Joseph Dickinson, OCD

We arrived at New york friday Morning the 2d of July. Lodg’d at one Mrs white. Stay’d there till Sunday the 4th when we saild to norfolk in Capt Cary Sloop arrived there on the friday following[,] the 9th[.] Sat Saild th[a]t Same Evening for Maryland in Capt gibsons sloop. We landed in Charles County on Sunday the 11th and have had vanity of habitation Ever Since.

Mother Clare Joseph Dickinson, O.C.D.

Journal of A Trip to America

After a passage of two months, they arrived at New York on the 2nd of July, Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They had left Europe under the auspices of Mary on the first day of the month consecrated to her honor, and arrived in America on one of her feast days. The Order of Carmel had thus begun its voyage to America with its glorious Queen, with her it continued it, and brought it happily to a close.

Charles W. Currier

Chapter VII, The Voyage (excerpts)

Currier, C 1890, Carmel in America: a centennial history of the Discalced Carmelites in the United States, J. Murphy, Baltimore.

Dickinson, CJ & FitzGerald, C 1990, The Carmelite adventure: Clare Joseph Dickinson’s journal of a trip to America, and other documents, Carmelite Sisters, Baltimore MD.

Featured image: Merchant ships carried freight and passengers in the golden age of sailing; here, we see a fine oil on canvas artwork from John Clinton Ogilvie (British, 1838–1900) that depicts the Ship ‘British Merchant’ Leaving Aberdeen. Ogilvie executed this painting in 1857 and it is a grand memorial to a ship that was totally destroyed by fire at Sydney, Australia. Image credit: Aberdeen Maritime Museum (Some rights reserved)

Quote of the day, 4 July: Mother Clare Joseph Dickinson, OCD

We arrived at New york friday Morning the 2d of July. Lodg’d at one Mrs white. Stay’d there till Sunday the 4th when we saild to norfolk in Capt Cary Sloop arrived there on the friday following[,] the 9th[.] Sat Saild th[a]t Same Evening for Maryland in Capt gibsons sloop. We landed in Charles County on Sunday the 11th and have had vanity of habitation Ever Since.

Mother Clare Joseph Dickinson, O.C.D.

Journal of A Trip to America

After a passage of two months, they arrived at New York on the 2nd of July, Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They had left Europe under the auspices of Mary on the first day of the month consecrated to her honor, and arrived in America on one of her feast days. The Order of Carmel had thus begun its voyage to America with its glorious Queen, with her it continued it, and brought it happily to a close.

Charles W. Currier

Chapter VII, The Voyage (excerpts)

Currier, C 1890, Carmel in America: a centennial history of the Discalced Carmelites in the United States, J. Murphy, Baltimore.

Dickinson, CJ & FitzGerald, C 1990, The Carmelite adventure: Clare Joseph Dickinson’s journal of a trip to America, and other documents, Carmelite Sisters, Baltimore MD.

Featured image: Merchant ships carried freight and passengers in the golden age of sailing; here, we see a fine oil on canvas artwork from John Clinton Ogilvie (British, 1838–1900) that depicts the Ship ‘British Merchant’ Leaving Aberdeen. Ogilvie executed this painting in 1857 and it is a grand memorial to a ship that was totally destroyed by fire at Sydney, Australia. Image credit: Aberdeen Maritime Museum (Some rights reserved)

Quote of the day, 4 July: Mother Clare Joseph Dickinson, OCD

We arrived at New york friday Morning the 2d of July. Lodg’d at one Mrs white. Stay’d there till Sunday the 4th when we saild to norfolk in Capt Cary Sloop arrived there on the friday following[,] the 9th[.] Sat Saild th[a]t Same Evening for Maryland in Capt gibsons sloop. We landed in Charles County on Sunday the 11th and have had vanity of habitation Ever Since.

Mother Clare Joseph Dickinson, O.C.D.

Journal of A Trip to America

After a passage of two months, they arrived at New York on the 2nd of July, Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They had left Europe under the auspices of Mary on the first day of the month consecrated to her honor, and arrived in America on one of her feast days. The Order of Carmel had thus begun its voyage to America with its glorious Queen, with her it continued it, and brought it happily to a close.

Charles W. Currier

Chapter VII, The Voyage (excerpts)

Currier, C 1890, Carmel in America: a centennial history of the Discalced Carmelites in the United States, J. Murphy, Baltimore.

Dickinson, CJ & FitzGerald, C 1990, The Carmelite adventure: Clare Joseph Dickinson’s journal of a trip to America, and other documents, Carmelite Sisters, Baltimore MD.

Featured image: Merchant ships carried freight and passengers in the golden age of sailing; here, we see a fine oil on canvas artwork from John Clinton Ogilvie (British, 1838–1900) that depicts the Ship ‘British Merchant’ Leaving Aberdeen. Ogilvie executed this painting in 1857 and it is a grand memorial to a ship that was totally destroyed by fire at Sydney, Australia. Image credit: Aberdeen Maritime Museum (Some rights reserved)

Quote of the day, 4 July: Mother Clare Joseph Dickinson, OCD

We arrived at New york friday Morning the 2d of July. Lodg’d at one Mrs white. Stay’d there till Sunday the 4th when we saild to norfolk in Capt Cary Sloop arrived there on the friday following[,] the 9th[.] Sat Saild th[a]t Same Evening for Maryland in Capt gibsons sloop. We landed in Charles County on Sunday the 11th and have had vanity of habitation Ever Since.

Mother Clare Joseph Dickinson, O.C.D.

Journal of A Trip to America

After a passage of two months, they arrived at New York on the 2nd of July, Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They had left Europe under the auspices of Mary on the first day of the month consecrated to her honor, and arrived in America on one of her feast days. The Order of Carmel had thus begun its voyage to America with its glorious Queen, with her it continued it, and brought it happily to a close.

Charles W. Currier

Chapter VII, The Voyage (excerpts)

Currier, C 1890, Carmel in America: a centennial history of the Discalced Carmelites in the United States, J. Murphy, Baltimore.

Dickinson, CJ & FitzGerald, C 1990, The Carmelite adventure: Clare Joseph Dickinson’s journal of a trip to America, and other documents, Carmelite Sisters, Baltimore MD.

Featured image: Merchant ships carried freight and passengers in the golden age of sailing; here, we see a fine oil on canvas artwork from John Clinton Ogilvie (British, 1838–1900) that depicts the Ship ‘British Merchant’ Leaving Aberdeen. Ogilvie executed this painting in 1857 and it is a grand memorial to a ship that was totally destroyed by fire at Sydney, Australia. Image credit: Aberdeen Maritime Museum (Some rights reserved)

Quote of the day, 4 July: Mother Clare Joseph Dickinson, OCD

We arrived at New york friday Morning the 2d of July. Lodg’d at one Mrs white. Stay’d there till Sunday the 4th when we saild to norfolk in Capt Cary Sloop arrived there on the friday following[,] the 9th[.] Sat Saild th[a]t Same Evening for Maryland in Capt gibsons sloop. We landed in Charles County on Sunday the 11th and have had vanity of habitation Ever Since.

Mother Clare Joseph Dickinson, O.C.D.

Journal of A Trip to America

After a passage of two months, they arrived at New York on the 2nd of July, Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They had left Europe under the auspices of Mary on the first day of the month consecrated to her honor, and arrived in America on one of her feast days. The Order of Carmel had thus begun its voyage to America with its glorious Queen, with her it continued it, and brought it happily to a close.

Charles W. Currier

Chapter VII, The Voyage (excerpts)

Currier, C 1890, Carmel in America: a centennial history of the Discalced Carmelites in the United States, J. Murphy, Baltimore.

Dickinson, CJ & FitzGerald, C 1990, The Carmelite adventure: Clare Joseph Dickinson’s journal of a trip to America, and other documents, Carmelite Sisters, Baltimore MD.

Featured image: Merchant ships carried freight and passengers in the golden age of sailing; here, we see a fine oil on canvas artwork from John Clinton Ogilvie (British, 1838–1900) that depicts the Ship ‘British Merchant’ Leaving Aberdeen. Ogilvie executed this painting in 1857 and it is a grand memorial to a ship that was totally destroyed by fire at Sydney, Australia. Image credit: Aberdeen Maritime Museum (Some rights reserved)

Laypeople and clergy of Russia and Kazakhstan standing for life https://www.byteseu.com/2134807/ ##SistersProject #Kazakhstan #laity #nuns #ProtectingLife #Russia

https://www.europesays.com/uk/1046241/ Laypeople and clergy of Russia and Kazakhstan standing for life ##SistersProject #Kazakhstan #laity #nuns #ProtectingLife #Russia

Pope tells Istanbul’s elderly they are the ‘wisdom of a people’

On his second day in Türkiye, Pope Leo XIV visits a care home for the elderly run by…
#EuropeSays #Turkiye #Istanbul #apostolicjourney #ELDERLY #nuns #PopeLeoXIV #Turkey
https://www.europesays.com/turkiye/19932/

Laypeople and clergy of Russia and Kazakhstan standing for life

On November 18, 1920, the USSR became the first country in the world to legalize abortion on request.…
#EuropeSays #Russia ##SistersProject #Kazakhstan #laity #nuns #protectinglife
https://www.europesays.com/russia/32697/

#nuns #music

#nuns #music

#nuns #music

#nuns #music

#nuns #music

https://www.europesays.com/africa/286493/ Kenya: Sisters of Mercy transform lives in Turkana East, changing status quo ##SistersProject #Kenya #Medicine&Health #nuns #solidarity

https://www.europesays.com/africa/282000/ Catholic sisters journeying together in solidarity and hope ##SistersProject #nuns #solidarity #Tanzania

Catholic church and Estonian Health Insurance Fund clash over nuns’ health insurance | News https://www.byteseu.com/2087742/ #CatholicChurch #Estonia #HealthInsuranceFund #MissionariesOfCharity #nuns

In the footsteps of St. Rita: A Brazilian woman on mission in Italy

Sister Maria Atília Collet has found in the saint of impossible causes a guiding light for her own…
#Italy #Europe #Europa #EU ##SistersProject #Brazil #nuns #saintsandblessed #solidarity
https://www.europesays.com/italy/19728/

26/?
Rarely do I read fiction that isn't speculative - but this book was another recommended by Jo Walton so I tried it. I liked it.

It was a peaceful slice of life about the women in an English Benedictine convent in the mid 1950s through the 1960s. It is definitely a product of its time (published in 1969) but I found it inspiring.
#MagpieReads #books #reading #nuns

26/?
Rarely do I read fiction that isn't speculative - but this book was another recommended by Jo Walton so I tried it. I liked it.

It was a peaceful slice of life about the women in an English Benedictine convent in the mid 1950s through the 1960s. It is definitely a product of its time (published in 1969) but I found it inspiring.
#MagpieReads #books #reading #nuns

26/?
Rarely do I read fiction that isn't speculative - but this book was another recommended by Jo Walton so I tried it. I liked it.

It was a peaceful slice of life about the women in an English Benedictine convent in the mid 1950s through the 1960s. It is definitely a product of its time (published in 1969) but I found it inspiring.
#MagpieReads #books #reading #nuns

26/?
Rarely do I read fiction that isn't speculative - but this book was another recommended by Jo Walton so I tried it. I liked it.

It was a peaceful slice of life about the women in an English Benedictine convent in the mid 1950s through the 1960s. It is definitely a product of its time (published in 1969) but I found it inspiring.
#MagpieReads #books #reading #nuns

26/?
Rarely do I read fiction that isn't speculative - but this book was another recommended by Jo Walton so I tried it. I liked it.

It was a peaceful slice of life about the women in an English Benedictine convent in the mid 1950s through the 1960s. It is definitely a product of its time (published in 1969) but I found it inspiring.
#MagpieReads #books #reading #nuns

📰 Two Case-studies of Vietnamese Buddhist Nuns (A free, 14-page article from 2022)

Tags: #BuddhistStudies #Vietnamese #Nuns #Taiwanese
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/articles/gender-roles-in-transmitting-vietnamese_cheng-wei-yi

📰 Two Case-studies of Vietnamese Buddhist Nuns (A free, 14-page article from 2022)

Tags: #BuddhistStudies #Vietnamese #Nuns #Taiwanese
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/articles/gender-roles-in-transmitting-vietnamese_cheng-wei-yi

📰 Two Case-studies of Vietnamese Buddhist Nuns (A free, 14-page article from 2022)

Tags: #BuddhistStudies #Vietnamese #Nuns #Taiwanese
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/articles/gender-roles-in-transmitting-vietnamese_cheng-wei-yi

📰 Two Case-studies of Vietnamese Buddhist Nuns (A free, 14-page article from 2022)

Tags: #BuddhistStudies #Vietnamese #Nuns #Taiwanese
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/articles/gender-roles-in-transmitting-vietnamese_cheng-wei-yi

📰 Two Case-studies of Vietnamese Buddhist Nuns (A free, 14-page article from 2022)

Tags: #BuddhistStudies #Vietnamese #Nuns #Taiwanese
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/articles/gender-roles-in-transmitting-vietnamese_cheng-wei-yi

Christian Nuns in Tblisi, Georgia, 1933-1934

https://piefed.social/c/historyphotos/p/2032714/christian-nuns-in-tblisi-georgia-1933-1934

Christian Nuns in Tblisi, Georgia, 1933-1934

https://piefed.social/c/historyphotos/p/2032714/christian-nuns-in-tblisi-georgia-1933-1934

Christian Nuns in Tblisi, Georgia, 1933-1934

Christian Nuns in Tblisi, Georgia, 1933-1934

Suspect arrested for assault on Jerusalem nun

A violent assault on a French Catholic nun in East Jerusalem has drawn international condemnation after footage of…
#Israel #News #assault #Catholic #IsraelPolice #jerusalem #nuns
https://www.europesays.com/2961520/

Spanish nuns are fighting to preserve a giant rabbit breed in danger of extinction

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.upworthy.com/spanish-nuns-are-fighting-to-preserve-a-giant-rabbit-breed-in-danger-of-extinction/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=spanish-nuns-are-fighting-to-preserve-a-giant-rabbit-breed-in-danger-of-extinction

Spanish nuns are fighting to preserve a giant rabbit breed in danger of extinction

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.upworthy.com/spanish-nuns-are-fighting-to-preserve-a-giant-rabbit-breed-in-danger-of-extinction/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=spanish-nuns-are-fighting-to-preserve-a-giant-rabbit-breed-in-danger-of-extinction

Spanish nuns are fighting to preserve a giant rabbit breed in danger of extinction

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.upworthy.com/spanish-nuns-are-fighting-to-preserve-a-giant-rabbit-breed-in-danger-of-extinction/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=spanish-nuns-are-fighting-to-preserve-a-giant-rabbit-breed-in-danger-of-extinction

Spanish nuns are fighting to preserve a giant rabbit breed in danger of extinction

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.upworthy.com/spanish-nuns-are-fighting-to-preserve-a-giant-rabbit-breed-in-danger-of-extinction/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=spanish-nuns-are-fighting-to-preserve-a-giant-rabbit-breed-in-danger-of-extinction

18 April: Blessed Mary of the Incarnation Avrillot

April 18
BLESSED MARY OF THE INCARNATION AVRILLOT
Religious

Optional Memorial

In the houses in France:  Memorial

Barbe Avrillot was born in Paris in 1566. At the age of sixteen, she married Pierre Acarie, by whom she had seven children. In spite of her household duties and many hardships, she attained the heights of the mystical life. Under the influence of St. Teresa’s writings, and after mystical contact with the Saint herself, she spared no effort in introducing the Discalced Carmelite nuns into France. After her husband’s death, she asked to be admitted among them as a lay sister, taking the name of Mary of the Incarnation; she was professed at the Carmel of Amiens in 1615. She was esteemed by some of the greatest men of her time, including St. Francis de Sales; and she was distinguished by her spirit of prayer and her zeal for the propagation of the Catholic faith. She died at Pontoise on April 18th, 1618.

From the Common of Holy Women (Religious)

Office of Readings

Hymn

Proud Heresy, with fur’ous, flame-like glance,
Hath gazed exulting on the Western nations;
And fired, as by a torch, unhappy France
is prey to cruel wars and devastations.

A noble woman, brave, of lion heart,
Now giveth rescue, home and faith defending,
With courage to repel the poison-dart,
And spurn the peril with a will unbending.

The exile of her lord is bravely borne,
Her scattered heritage and ruined dwelling;
She nobly conquers insult, pride, and scorn,
With joyful heart to lowly deeds compelling.

She faltereth not tho’ trial presseth sore,
Though cares abound, tho’ lamed in torture lying;
Nay, for her Lord’s sweet sake she craveth more,
To suffer all with Him her soul is sighing.

And when misfortune giveth place to peace,
She resteth not, her zeal o’erpasseth measure;
To spread the faith her ardors never cease,
And gentle service is her life and pleasure.

From Spain she seeketh help for her loved land,
For Carmel there, a noble vine hath flourished,
Transplanting thence a sacred virgin band,
By blest Theresa’s strength of spirit nourished.

All honor to the Father and the Son!
Be equal glory to the Spirit given!
O great Divinity, Thou, Three in One,
May ages praise Thee with the songs of Heaven!

10.11.10.11.

The Second Reading
From the Way of Perfection by Saint Teresa of Avila
(C. 1, no. 1ff.: ed. Kavanaugh-Rodriguez 1980, pp. 41-43, 50)

The apostolic aim of the Teresian Carmel

When I began to take the first steps toward founding this monastery, it was not my intention that there be so much external austerity.

At that time news reached me of the harm being done in France and of the havoc the Lutherans had caused and how much this miserable sect was growing. The news distressed me greatly, and, as though I could do something or were something, I cried to the Lord and begged him that I might remedy so much evil. It seemed to me that I would have given a thousand lives to save one soul out of the many that were being lost there.

I realized I was a woman and wretched and incapable of doing any of the useful things I desired to do in the service of the Lord. All my longing was and still is that since he has so many enemies and so few friends that these few friends be good ones. As a result I resolved to do the little that was in my power; that is, to follow the evangelical counsels as perfectly as I could and strive that these few persons who live here do the same.

I did this trusting in the great goodness of God, who never fails to help anone who is determined to give up everything for him. My trust was that if these sisters matched the ideal my desires had set for them, my faults would not have much strength in the midst of so many virtues; and I could thereby please the Lord in some way. Since we would all be occupied in prayer for those who are the defenders of the Church and for preachers and for learned men who protect her from attack, we could help as much as possible this Lord of mine who is roughly treated by those for whom he has done so much good; it seems these traitors would want him to be crucified again and that he have no place to lay his head. Still, my heart breaks to see how many souls are lost. Though I can’t grieve so much over the evil already done—that is irreparable—I would not want to see more of them lost each day.

O my Sisters in Christ, help me beg these things of the Lord. This is why he has gathered you together here. This is your vocation. These must be the things you desire, the things you weep about; these must be the objects of your petitions. The world is all in flames, they want to sentence Christ again, so to speak, since they raise a thousand false witnesses against him; they want to ravage his Church.

So, then, I beg you for the love of the Lord to ask His Majesty to hear us in this matter. Miserable though I am, I ask His Majesty this, since it is for his glory and the good of the Church; this glory and good is the object of my desires.

Responsory

R/. Let petitions and prayers of thanksgiving be offered to God for everyone: * for it is His will that all should be saved and come to know the truth (alleluia).
V/. Prayer of this kind is good, and pleasing to God our Savior, * for it is His will that all should be saved and come to know the truth (alleluia).

Morning Prayer

Hymn

Freed at length from marriage tie,
Winged with joy her soul doth fly
To the fortress of Teresa, led by Spirit’s call;
Choosing there the lowest place,
She, who with a mother’s grace
Well might rule and govern, now is subject unto all.

O’er her sisters rising far,
As a bright and glorious star,
Guide of all who seek the path of life to God above,
She all honor doth despise,
And with great Teresa vies
In the tortures of her heart consumed with flames of love.

Mount thee to the heavenly height,
In the grace of love and light,
Harken to thy suppliants then, who pleading cry to thee.
Cast a love-enkindled glance
On thine own, thy native France,
That all minds and hearts be one in faith and charity.

Hasten all ye right of heart,
Sing ye loud with joyful art
Praise to our Redeemer Christ, and humbly Him adore;
Praise with all the heavenly host
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
One in Blessed Trinity of Persons ever more.

77.76.D.

Canticle of Zechariah
Ant. Whatever you ask of the Father in my name, says the Lord, He will give you (alleluia).

Prayer

Heavenly Father,
You gave Blessed Mary of the Incarnation
heroic strength in the face of the adversities
she met along life’s road,
and zeal for the extension of the Carmelite family.
May we your children
courageously endure every trial
and persevere to the end in Your love.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Evening Prayer

Hymn

Let angels hymn sweet harmony unending,
Let Carmel gladly join her ardent prayer,
While temples echo with the songs ascending
Upon the joyful air.

The glorious life of Mary now inspires
The chanting of her praises, fitly due;
She dwelleth high amid celestial choirs,
In bliss serene and true.

Her mind reposed in God from earliest dawning;
Her ready heart was swift to prompting grace;
All empty pomp and sinful pleasures scorning,
She fled the world’s embrace.

To dwell with Christ a virgin, was her choosing;
She fondly sought Him for her Lord and Spouse,
But wishes of her parents ne’er refusing,
‘Neath wedded yoke she bows.

So hath God willed that this exalted matron
With brightest luster of her state might shine,
To them that wed a noble type and patron
Of virtues all divine.

As wife and mother strong her love and tender,
Meek to obey her husband’s every call,
To children and to servants prompt to render,
A prudent care in all.

All honor to the Father, Son, and Spirit,
O glorious Trinity enthroned above.
The blessed faith whose teachings we inherit,
Proclaims Thee One in love.

11.10.11.6

Canticle of Mary
Ant. I have not labored for myself alone, but for all who seek wisdom (alleluia).

Catholic Church 1993, Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites (Rev. and augm.), Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome.

Featured image: This portrait of Blessed Mary of the Incarnation was created by an unknown artist in the mid-17th century. The is part of the art collection at the Carmel of Saint Joseph in Pontoise, France. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (Used by permission)