Study Guide: The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapter 23

Chapter 23 brings us to this consideration:

How God answers and provides spiritually for those who are too preoccupied with loving him to answer and provide for themselves

Brother Birger
is in charge ofmaking candles
at the Lutheran
Ostanback Monastery
in Germany

In this chapter Anonymous assures his young student reader that all will be well if he decides to become a contemplative in a contemplative community, a monastery.  One certainly doesn't, he says, unnecessarily postpone living such a communal life.  The Teacher promises that when people model their lives after that of Mary Magdalene, God "will always defend" them (59).  We need not worry, therefore, about anyone who criticizes contemplative-prayer people for having too much of a Mary-heart. In fact, if such critics are "good-hearted," they will later feel ashamed of what they have said.




Speaking as a mature contemplative, Anonymous assures his young protege that God will provide for those who live like Mary; he will make sure that have "food, clothes, and all else" (59).  Yes, he knows that some like to quote the Old Middle English saying that "God sends the cow, but not by the horn," that is, God helps those who help themselves. Self-help is not a concern. Indeed, Anonymous insists, God doesn't expect anyone to postpone his or her contemplative prayer life until all of one's material needs are in order for self-reliant living. In fact, God always does one of the two things. One the one hand, he may give someone an abundance of what he or she needs so that person will be taken care of; or, on the other hand, God may give someone "the physical stamina and spiritual patience to endure its absence." When all is said and done, those who know God by living the contemplative life "need nothing else in this life" (60).

At this point, some may wish to find out more about living a more fully realized contemplative life, either in a community or an a hermit or anchoress. Here are some places to visit to find out more about such possibilities:

• A Hermit of the Heart

• The Order of Saint Benedict

• St. Augustine's House, Oxford, Michigan