“Cast Your Burden Upon The Lord, And He Will Sustain You”. On Cleaving To God. Saint Albert The Great.

This Article is taken from ENLARGING THE HEART

English: Saint Albert the Great

(Albertus Magnus).

Deutsch: Albertus Magnus, Tafelgemälde des Joos (Justus) van Gent, Urbino.

Artist: Justus van Gent (circa 1410–1480).

Date: Circa 1475.

(Wikimedia Commons)

There, in the presence of Jesus Christ, with everything, in general and individually, excluded and wiped out, the mind alone turns in security confidently to The Lord its God with its desire.

In this way, it pours itself forth into Him in full sincerity with its whole heart and the yearning of its love, in the most inward part of all its faculties, and is plunged, enlarged, set on fire and dissolved into Him.

Certainly, anyone who desires and aims to arrive at, and remain in, such a state, must needs above all have eyes and senses closed and not be inwardly involved or worried about anything.

Saint Albert the Great

(Albertus Magnus).

Artist: Tommaso da Modena (1326–1379).

Date: 1352.

Current location: Treviso - Chiesa di San Nicolò,

Sala del Capitolo (Seminario di Treviso), Italy.

Source/Photographer: Kapitelsaal des ehemaligen Dominikanerklosters San Niccolò in Treviso.

First uploaded by sv:Användare:Lamré to Swedish Wikipedia as sv:Bild:AlbertusMagnus.jpg.

(Wikimedia Commons)

He should not be concerned or occupied with anything, but should completely reject all such things as irrelevant, harmful and dangerous.

Then he should withdraw himself totally within himself, and not pay any attention to any object entering the mind except Jesus Christ, The Wounded One, alone.

And so he should turn his attention with care and determination through Him into Him – that is, through the man into God, through the wounds of His humanity into the inmost reality of His Divinity.

Here, he can commit himself and all that he has, individually and as a whole, promptly, securely and without discussion, to God’s unwearying providence, in accordance with the words of Peter, cast all your care upon Him (1 Peter 5.7), Who can do everything.

And, again. In nothing be anxious (Philippians 4.6), or what is more, Cast your burden upon The Lord, and He will sustain you (Psalm 55.22).

[ . . . ] The bride, too, in The Song of Songs, says: "I have found Him Whom my Soul loves"(Canticle 3.4), and, again, "All good things came to me along with her" (Wisdom 7.11).

This, after all, is the hidden Heavenly Treasure, none other than The Pearl of Great Price, which must be sought with resolution, esteeming it in humble faithfulness, eager diligence, and calm silence before all things, and preferring it even above physical comfort, or honour and renown.

For what good does it do a Religious, if he gains the whole World but suffers the loss of his Soul ? Or what is the benefit of his state of life, the holiness of his profession, the virtue of his Habit and Tonsure, or the outer circumstances of his way of life, if he is without a life of spiritual humility and truth in which Christ abides through a Faith created by love.

This is what Luke means by, The Kingdom of God (that is, Jesus Christ) is within you (Luke 17.21).

Albert the Great (1193/1206–1280) [attributed]: On Cleaving to God, 1 and 2.