Course XLV - Teaching 6: Oblivion of the World

Total dedication is impossible without full oblivion of one’s past.
As soon as the Son passes through the Holy Gate of his Ordination, he must entirely strip of the old man as if he came really and physically into a new life.
As soon as a Son is in the Seminary, he will make a backward survey of his entire past life. This survey will last several days or weeks, under Spiritual Director’s guide.
He will try to remember the most remote and forgotten events, and even the most futile and insignificant, without any concealment or shame. If necessary, he will write down all and make use of his meditation period with these memories.
Later, he will open his heart to his Superior or Spiritual Director, without any reticence or shame. He will put his past at the feet of his Superior of Spiritual Director, and the latter will surrender it to the Divine Mother as an offering; then the Son will be sure that all will remain in the deepest silence and secret, which ties in the same way a father with his son: the Vow of Silence.
Afterward, memories and papers will be thrown to the eternal fire of the Divine Love as a living offering of surrender, and the past will remain forgotten and dead forever.
Of course, the Son will not take again what he had given in a way so free and generous.
Later, the Son will be highly zealous not to demonstrate externally this oblivion of his past. And he will never return to any event or word that may revive it.
Of course, especially in the beginning, this will be difficult and strenuous. The past will emerge on the soul in many different forms and will try to occupy the mind and heart of the Son.
His nostalgia will touch the innermost depths of his being, and will put him in contact with events and personages that he knows and loves.
His sadness will cover memories of pain and misery of the world, to show those few happy moments that he lived in the valley.
All these things will be guilt complexes before duties left aside, which will emphasize images that should remain just in the presence of the Divine Mother during the period of prayer.
They will be sentimental stimuli that will try to reflect pictures of flesh and desire behind this disguise.
But all these feelings and thoughts are just temptations to move the soul away from the light and peace of the Divine World, and to return it to the shadows of the world.
When the soul is not very strong and is carried away by memories, this evil appears on the surface and is cause of delay in the Path to perfection and of many faults of Observance and good example regarding other Sons.
You will notice this especially in recreations and strolls. These Sons always will express and remember their past: “When I was a student in such and such school…”, “My aunt used to say…”, At home there was a plant…”.
A Son that is totally surrendered has forgotten his past. He has not a past.
He is not born here or there because he does not name his home city; he remembers his parents and says their names just at the feet of the Divine Mother, and does not mention any image related to his life in the world.
And to make use of particular confidences would be a serious fault and an indication of a wrong spirit. Sons: never fall so much into imperfection.
When a soul must entrust something to other person that is not his Superior or Spiritual Director and needs to tell in secret events of his past life in the world, this means that this soul is tied to his past and goes on to live in it, hindering any progress in his way toward perfection.
And it is a serious fault in a Son to hear these confidences because in this way, also he comes back to the world and to the past: it is as if he despised the heavenly manna for onions of Egypt.
To suppose that this may happen is beyond imagination.
Likewise, Superiors must be very cautious in this. Do not believe that your authority permits you to send souls to the world. Be moderate in your questions, cautious in your enquiries about the past, and reluctant to subsequent confidences.
When the Son is Ordained has made a backward survey, is free of the burden of his past life, and has entrusted it to his Superior or Spiritual Director. All this is dead and buried.
Saint John of the Cross chants:
“I remained and forgot,
and reclined my face on the Beloved One”.
Cannot there be other way. In the Mystical Path of Divine Union cannot there be specks or tarnished things.
In those who remain there and only watch the Divine Light, in those who forget all, in those who abandon all, and in those who, being dead to the world, have the gift and unique right to take part in the Divine Life, their only supreme good is to recline their face on the Beloved One.