An Ancient Cistercian Prayer – Inveni
By Fr. Joe Tedesco, Superior of Mepkin Abbey
An address to the Mepkin community
I have found him whom my soul loves: I grasp him and will not let him go. I embrace you,
my Jesus and experience the joy of my love. I encompass you, the treasure of my heart,
from whom I have all that is mine. May my mind feel, I beg you, the power of your presence.
May it taste how sweet you are, O Lord, so that, captivated by your love, it might seek nothing outside of you, and love nothing except because of you.
You are my King: do not forget my indigence and tribulation. You are my Judge: forgive my sins and have mercy on me. You are my Physician: heal all my infirmities. You are the Bridegroom of my soul: wed yourself to me for all eternity. You are my Guide and my Defender: keep me at your side and then any hand can fight against me. You became a Victim for my sake, and I will sacrifice to you an oblation of praise. You are my Redeemer: redeem my soul from the power of hell and save me. You are my God and my All.
What is there for me to seek in the heavens, and, apart from you, what do I desire on earth? The God of my heart and my lot are you, O God, for all eternity!
I love this prayer. It names our hearts desire. All we truly want to have with Jesus, our Lord,
And all we know to be our fulfillment. We seek him, we desire him, want this union with him, the way to fulfill our life in God. So that we can say “everything in me is only for you Lord God”. Your love and relationship Lord, is my life.
It’s this purifying love we seek, that transformation of all parts of our memory, Will, mind and heart. That’s the point of our life as monks, to remake ourselves into Christ. Of course, only with grace, can we do it. Or I should say God does it in us. But we set it up opening ourselves to this grace.
There is this duality in us and we are always struggling to be of God and not the self. Our human weakness and sin can overwhelm us- take us away from Jesus. But his love, his goodness is our hope to overcome ourselves. For me, this Inveni prayer keeps the invitation up front to allow Jesus to be my Christ. Especially the bridegroom of my soul, which is a very Cistercian understanding. Christ’s love sustains us. So we beg Jesus for more. To transform us, truly to imprint his love on our hearts. So that our hope is in Him.
When we pray this prayer, we realize there are numerous titles of Christ that are named and honored. We want to understand the meaning so that our prayer can be a rich moment of deepening faith and recognition of who Jesus is for us to live in faith, hope and love of him.
There are 8 titles used. King, Judge, Physician, Bridegroom of the soul, Guide, Defender, victim and redeemer. Fr. Simeon from Spenser Abbey found the prayer in an old Cistercian prayer book published by Westmalle Abbey in 1930. It was a monastic collection and he also found it in the 18th and 19th Century old prayer anthologies. Fr. Simeon said that the prayer uses many direct and indirect quotations from the Song of Songs as well as the psalms and refers constantly to the soul as a personified feminine person. Although Fr. Simeon says he has no proof, we can presume it is a Cistercian origin.
The 8 Titles are:
1- King – We celebrate the feast of Christ our King. We are baptized and anointed as priest, prophet and King in the name of the Lord Jesus, because through our baptism we share in his grace, his life. Jesus is the Lord of the Universe; He is sovereign of our hearts and also sovereign of all Nations and peoples. Christ was sent by the Father to exercise authority over heaven and earth to bring all of creation into harmony with our God. It is his servant leadership that we honor in Christ our King. We keep our eyes fixed on our crucified Christ who is our King.
Look at Ephesians 1. We are so needy and we seek His understanding of us, acceptance of us.
2- Judge – We see in Matthew 25: 31 – 46, that Jesus when he comes to glory, will judge everyone those who showed compassion to others, will inherit the Kingdom of God. Christ’s loving kindness and faithfulness is mercy. The way he sees each of us.
We surely want to be in that group. Our “Inveni” prayer is to move us to act in this manner. To see Christ as our Judge and stir us to action. We recognize that Christ is inviting us to a certain way of life. Our personal relationship with Christ is so important. I believe this prayer can stir our hearts into deeper reflections. Hopefully, this will move us to a new-found level of relationship, of trust perhaps. But more, to openness to the needs of others. Asking yourself, what can I do. Being obedient to one another’s needs is our community life.
3 -Physician of souls and bodies – Through the power of the holy spirit in the church Jesus continues his forgiveness and healing. Through the 2 sacraments of healing and reconciliation.
In the forgiveness of sins, we form our consciences, we fight against those evil tendencies and we let ourselves be healed and we can progress in the life of the Spirit.
WE want Christ to heal all those areas of weakness in us.
In the gospels Jesus often asks the sick to believe. He touches them, laying on hi hands and we are continually being touched by Jesus in our prayer. We can sense a real healing of our issues at times. And we have a sense of deepening life within.
4- Bridegroom of our Soul – The new covenant in the blood of Christ celebrates his love for us.
Just as he is the bridegroom of the church – we hear in Revelations 19, Christ is the bridegroom of our souls. I find this so powerful and a deep consolation. Christ loves us so much, we belong to him and he feels this relationship that the sacred writers could be so inspired to write of this relationship with this emphasis of love and connection, commitment and tenderness. It’s Jesus with us on this spiritual journey, he wants to be with us in this intimate way. That the spiritual reality, spiritual union can be expressed so beautifully. His love embraces me fully with a oneness of heart. It feels like Jesus’ most intimate identity, giving himself to us. It’s what we see in the passion narratives, the bridegroom and his continual surrender of himself to us and for us.
Lent is this reflection of Christ giving for the whole world. And we to seek this surrender to him for the Church and the world. Bernard writes in his treatise on the love of God that the measure of love is to love without measure. We seek to imitate Christ’s love.
It describes all we desire with God. Of course, the challenge is to live it out. To be caught up in the delight of the beloved, to seek his face, to be one. And in those very brief moments at times at prayer, we can get a glimpse of that passing feeling.
We are always seeking him, searching for him, our beloved in our hearts. because we want nothing but Christ’s love to be our life. It takes the total surrender to love, God’s love. What I find so compelling is that this names so powerfully, the spiritual journey in terms we can hold on to. Bernard, of course, in his many sermons on the Song of Songs, relates to this journey. Christ is the bridegroom of our soul.
5- Guide – Jesus becomes our model of our spiritual journey lived out. From the beginning Jesus was obedient to Mary and Joseph. His example is key to our daily life as Cistercians, a life of obedience to God, to the superior and to one another. This is really the foundation of how we live the monastic life. As Jesus is always obedient to the Father’s Will.
Then in His ministry, Jesus is a model of love and compassion. Of mercy and forgiveness. This shows us how to live with one another in all those challenging moments of very different personalities finding their way together. We want to celebrate each member of the community, Jesus shows us how.
When we look at Jesus praying, we get immediately the idea of our own call. He spends many nights in prayer. We seek to do that with our vigils tradition. Also, teaching the disciples to pray. The Our Father is the one prayer we say so many times throughout the day in our community life. It becomes the touch point of prayer for the community. Jesus gives us this prayer.
The other point here is that Jesus is always bringing mercy and forgiveness in his ministry. Our whole life as Cistercians is praying for the Church and the world. It’s our life of intercession.
6- Defender – Jesus is the incarnation of God. The only Son. The Good Shepard who lays down his life for us.
In John 10: 14 Jesus gives us the best word. I am the Good Shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me. That is right where we want to be: Jesus knowing us and we in turn in relationship with him to truly know the Lord. There’s the true defender, who knows those who are close to him and he is truly with them. Jesus takes care of us and loves us. That’s why we go to him in our need. Our prayer stirs us up and we feel this special connection with him. We are inseparable I can depend on Him.
7- Victim – Jesus, freely suffered death for us in complete and free submission to the will of god, his Father. By his death he has conquered death and so opened the possibility of salvation for all. Jesus offered himself in sacrificial love – a victim for our sakes, giving himself in love.
Our salvation flows from God’s initiative of love for us because “he loved us and sent his son to be the expiation of our sins. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. 2 Cor 5: 19 Jesus is willing to die for us, we offer ourselves to him.
8-Redeemer – As the one who restores the relationship with God lost by sin. As St. Paul writes in Romans, as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all.
Paul then contrasts the universality of sin and death with the universality of salvation in Christ.
Jesus became the Lamb of God our Paschal Sacrifice. It is by the cross that Christ is the one mediator between God and man. Because in his incarnate divine person he unites himself to every man. So, we can be partners in the paschal mystery. He calls his disciples to take up their cross and follow him. Christ suffered to leave us an example so that we should follow in his steps. Jesus came to give his life as a ransom for many. Matt. 20: 28.
Christ’s whole reality of life and love saves us and gives us new life. He is everything for us.
Christ’s sacrifice is the definitive sacrifice. The sacrifice of the new covenant which restores us to communion with God by reconciling to God through the blood of the covenant which was poured out for the forgiveness of sins. So Christ’s sacrifice is unique and completes and surpasses all the other sacrifices offered. This is the gift of the Father to us who handed over his son in order to reconcile all things through Him.
Our daily Eucharist is the gift we have here as a community. To share in this sacrifice and become one in it. The highpoint of the day, to recall again why we are here. This unity of our own sacrifice to God for the church and the world. This just binds us together as we share in sacred meal. Something happens around the altar every day.
The challenge is to be present to it and live it out throughout the day.
