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Simone's pure prayer

The Ancient Greek Pater from Matthew 6,9-13 was the only prayer Simone Weil recited, at first only for its beauty, but afterwards she writes that she found herself repeatedly in the presence of Christ after praying it. She describes this experience in her letter to Father Perrin written as she left for America from Casablanca in May of 1942.

Jusqu'en septembre dernier, il ne m'était jamais arrivé dans ma vie de prier même une seule fois, du moins au sens littéral du mot. Jamais je n'avais tout haut ou mentalement adressé de paroles à Dieu (773) Up until last september, I had not prayed even once in my life, at least in the litteral sense of the word. I had never addressed words to God aloud or mentally
Weil learns the Greek Pater by heart as an exercise, but then is so pleased with its sweetness that she starts reciting it almost continuously. She then decides to recite it once a day with absolute attention. In a rare confession, she reveals that this practice lead her to mystical experiences:
La vertu de cette pratique est extraordinaire et me surprend chaque fois, car quoique je l'éprouve chaque jour elle dépasse chaque fois mon attente. Parfois les premiers mots déjà arrachent ma pensée à mon corps et la transportent en un lieu hors de l'espace d'où il n'y a ni perspective ni point de vue. L'espace s'ouvre. L'infinité de l'espace ordinaire de la perception est remplacée par une infinité à la deuxième ou quelquefois troisième puissance. En même temps cette infinité d'infinité s'emplit de part en part de silence, un silence qui n'est pas une absence de son, qui est l'objet d'une sensation positive, plus positive que celle d'un son. Les bruits, s'il y en a, ne me parviennent qu'après avoir traversé ce silence. (773) The virtue of this practice is extraordinary and surprises me every time I do it, for, even though I live it every day, it goes beyond my expectation every time. Sometimes the first words already tear my thought outside my body and transport it to a place outside space from which there is neither perspective or point of view. Space opens up. The infinity of ordinary space is replaced by an infinity to second or third power. At the same time this infinity of infinities fills itself to the brim with silence, a silence that is not an absence of sound, and that is the object of a positive sensation, more positive than that of a sound. Noises, if there are any, only reach me after going through this silence.
In a rare moment of intimacy, Simone reveals that she has felt the presence of Christ, in language that harkens to Saint Theresa or St John of the Cross. It is revealing that her vague description of these encounters lacks her characteristic keen analysis.
Parfois aussi, pendant cette récitation ou à d'autres moments, le Christ est présent en personne, mais d'une présence infiniment plus réelle, plus poignante, plus claire et plus pleine d'amour que cette première fois où il m'a prise.

Jamais je n'aurais pu prendre sur moi de vous dire tout cela sans le fait que je pars. Et comme je pars avec plus ou moins la pensée d'une mort probable, il me semble que je n'ai pas le droit de taire ces choses. Car après tout, dans tout cela il ne s'agit pas de moi. Il ne s'agit que de Dieu. Je n'y suis vraiment pour rien. (773)

Sometimes also, during this recitation or at other moments, Christ is present in person, but with a presence that is infinitely more real, more poignant, more clear and more full of love than the first time he took me.

I never would have taken it upon me to tell you all this if I wasn't leaving. And as I leave with more or less the thought of a probable death, it seems to me that I do not have the right to not speak of these things. For after all, in all of this, it's not about me. It's about God. I have nothing to do with it.

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ancient greek Pater
To better appreciate the musicality that Weil enjoyed so much, below is a transliteration of the Ancient Greek text below, facing the familiar King James version
Pater aymohn ho en toyss ooranoyss, Our father who art in heaven,
agiasthaytoh to onomasoo, hallow be thy name,
elthetoh hay basileya soo, thy kingdom come,
genaythaytoh to thelayma soo, thy will be done,
hohss en ooranoh kai epi gayss on earth as it is in heaven,
ton arton haymohn ton epioosion dos haymin saymeron give us this day our daily bread
kai aphess haymin ta opheilaymata haymohn and forgive us our trespasses
hohss kai haymeiss aphyemen toyss opheyletaiss haymohn as we forgive those who trespass against us
kai may eisenenkayss haymass eyss peirasmon and lead us not into temptation
alla rusai haymass apo too ponayroo but deliver us from evil
In Thoughts without order concerning the love of God Weil describes the power she attributes to this prayer that derives from its divine purity:
Les paroles du Pater sont parfaitement pures. Si on récite le Pater sans aucune autre intention que de porter sur ces paroles mêmes la plénitude de l'attention dont on est capable, on est tout à fait sûr d'être délivré par ce moyen d'une partie, si petite soit-elle, du mal qu'on porte en soi. De même si on regarde le Saint-Sacrement sans aucune autre pensée, sinon que le Christ est là; et ainsi de suite. (P15) The words of the Pater are perfectly pure. If you recite the Pater with no other intention than to pay the fullness of one's attention on the words themselves, you are completely sure to be delivered by this means from a part, as small as it may be, of the evil you hold inside you. In the same way if you look at the Holy Sacrement with no other thought than that Christ is there, and so on.
Here Weil identifies the Lord's prayer with the Christian incarnation of communion. As discussed elsewhere, Weil sees language as a both a literal and figurative pathway to God. Literally because God inhabits the Bible's words, and figuratively because she sees time and again a mystical linguistic correspondence between things down below and up above, "on earth as it is in heaven". It is in this spirit that Weil reads gravity or photosynthesis like one of Christ's parables.
For Weil, one of God's chief attributes is purity. The presence of purity is a sign of God's presence. This purity, and therefore God, can only be found in sacred language, nature, holy people and religious art.
Il n'y a de pur ici-bas que les objets et les textes sacrés, la beauté de la nature si on la regarde pour elle-même et non pour y loger ses rêveries, et, à un degré moindre, les êtres humains en qui Dieu habite et les oeuvres d'art issues d'une inspiration divine. (P16) The only pure things down here are sacred objects and texts, the beauty of nature if you look at it for itself and not as a place for your reveries, and, to a lesser extent, human beings in whom God lives and works of art issued from divine inspiration.
For Weil, the contact with God is the result of the attention focussed on a pure thing. The soul's gaze on purity creates a miraculous alchemy of redemption that transmutates self-loathing into love of God.
Ce qui est parfaitement pur ne peut pas être autre chose que Dieu présent ici-bas. Si c'était autre chose que Dieu, cela ne serait pas pur. Si Dieu n'était pas présent, nous ne pourrions jamais être sauvés. Dans l'âme où s'est produit un tel contact avec la pureté, toute l'horreur du mal qu'elle porte en soi se change en amour pour la pureté divine. C'est ainsi que Marie-Madeleine et le bon larron ont été privilégiés de l'amour. (P16) That which is perfectly pure can not be anything else but God present down here. If it was something else than God, it would not be pure. If God was not present, we would never be saved. In the soul where there has been a contact with purity, all its horror of the evil that it carries inside it changes into love for divine purity. This is how Mary-Magdalene and the good thief were privileged by love.
Simone Weil's commentary on the Pater from Attente de Dieu is available on the web in French here
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