Simone Weil (1909 - 1943)

Simone Weil's  mystic experiences in her own words

She had her first mystical experience at the Solesmes Monastery as she listened to the monks chant. She later had another mystical experience in which she stated that “Christ himself came down and He took me” as she read George Herbert’s poem, “Love bade me welcome while my Soul drew back.” Here are excerpts from a letter written in Marseilles, France about May 15, 1942 to her close friend Father Perrin about these experience

  "In 1938 I spent ten days at Solesmes, from Palm Sunday to Easter Tuesday, following all the liturgical services. I was suffering from splitting headaches; each sound hurt me like a blow; by an extreme effort of concentration I was able to rise above this wretched flesh, to leave it to suffer by itself, heaped up in a corner, and to find a pure and perfect joy in the unimaginable beauty of the chanting and the words. This experience enabled me by analogy to get a better understanding of the possibility of loving divine love in the midst of affliction. It goes without saying that in the course of these services the thought of the Passion of Christ entered into my being once and for all.

 

There was a young English Catholic there from whom I gained my first idea of the supernatural power of the sacraments because of the truly angelic radiance with which he seemed to be clothed after going to communion. Chance -- for I always prefer saying chance rather than Providence -- made of him a messenger to me. For he told me of the existence of those English poets of the seventeenth century who are named metaphysical. In reading them later on, I discovered the poem of which I read you what is unfortunately a very inadequate translation. It is called "Love". I learned it by heart. Often, at the culminating point of a violent headache, I make myself say it over, concentrating all my attention upon it and clinging with all my soul to the tenderness it enshrines. I used to think I was merely reciting it as a beautiful poem, but without my knowing it the recitation had the virtue of a prayer. It was during one of these recitations that, as I told you, Christ himself came down and took possession of me...Moreover, in this sudden possession of me by Christ, neither my senses nor my imagination had any part; I only felt in the midst of my suffering the presence of a love, like that which one can read in the smile on a beloved face.

Until last September I had never once prayed in all my life, at least not in the literal sense of the word. I had never said any words to God, either out loud or mentally. Last summer, doing Greek with T-, I went through the Our Father word for word in Greek. We promised each other to learn it by heart. I do not think he ever did so, but some weeks later, as I was turning over the pages of the Gospel, I said to myself that since I had promised to do this thing and it was good, I ought to do it.

 

I did it. The infinite sweetness of this Greek text so took hold of me that for several days I could not stop myself from saying it over all the time. A week afterward I began the vine harvest I recited the Our Father in Greek every day before work, and I repeated it very often in the vineyard. Since that time I have made a practice of saying it through once each morning with absolute attention. If during the recitation my attention wanders or goes to sleep, in the minutest degree, I begin again until I have once succeeded in going through it with absolutely pure attention.

 

Sometimes it comes about that I say it again out of sheer pleasure, but I only do it if I really feel the impulse. The effect of this practice is extraordinary and surprises me every time, for, although I experience it each day, it exceeds my expectation at each repetition. At times the very first words tear my thoughts from my body and transport it to a place outside space where there is neither perspective nor point of view. The infinity of the ordinary expanses of perception is replaced by an infinity to the second or sometimes the third degree. At the same time, filling every part of this infinity of infinity, there is silence, a silence which is not an absence of sound but which is the object of a positive sensation, more positive than that of sound. Noises, if there are any, only reach me after crossing this silence. Sometimes, also, during this recitation or at other moments, Christ is present with me in person, but his presence is infinitely more real, more moving, more clear than on that first occasion when he took possession of me."  

(Excerpted from Waiting for God by Simone Weil - Harper & Row, New York, 1951, translated by Emma Craufurd).

Festival of Marymass

Marymass is the Scottish name for the feast of the Assumption on 15th August. A Celtic festival by the name of Marymass was been celebrated in mid-August as early as the 7th century, with some festivals having actual records that go back to about the year 900.

Very early on, the Church chose August 15th to honor the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. August 15 would be the full moon of August if the new moon fell on the first of the month as it did during the time of the lunar calendar. It was proclaimed a holiday throughout the Roman Empire by Emperor Maurice around 600 in the East, and about 50 years later in the West. Common Celtic people would not have been aware of the theological doctrine of the assumption—that Mary did not die but was taken bodily up into heaven at the end of her earthly life. However, Celts would have associated Mary with the fruitfulness of the earth at the time of harvest, and celebrations connected to other harvest goddesses were transferred to Mary as the pagan Celtic lands were converted to Christianity. Representations of Mary often resembled the ancient depictions of harvest goddesses wearing robes decorated with ears of corn.

Marymass was the primary harvest festival in the northern Celtic regions where the harvest was later. It replaced the southern harvest festival Lughnasa which was normally celebrated anytime from late July to early August. The offering of the first fruits, first grains, or first loaf of bread, or Lammas (loaf-mass) which usually occurred during Lughnasa in the south, was transferred to Marymass in the north. The Lammas bannock (a traditional Scottish loaf) would be made from the new corn, dedicated to Mary the Mother of God, and used in Eucharistic celebrations. Some other traditional Marymass activities, such as elaborate flower displays, well dressing, torchlight and candlelight processions, and the offering of the first bread, were preserved intact for centuries because of the isolation of the Scottish islands and highlands.

Marymass fairs and festivals are still extremely popular in Scotland today, and frequently involve traditional music, poetry, and dancing. In some areas of Scotland modern Marymass tributes to the Blessed Virgin Mary have been combined or replaced by an emphasis on the historical figure Mary Queen of Scots. Young girls compete to be crowned Queen of Marymass with a court of four attendants each of whom is also called Mary.

By 900, the aroma of herbs and flowers was widely associated with Mary's victory over death. People brought medicinal herbs and plants to church (periwinkle, verbena, thyme) to be incensed and blessed, bound into a sheaf and kept all year to ward off illness, disaster and death. Marymass also marks the start of Our Lady's 30 Days, a time when animals and plants lose their harmful qualities and all food is wholesome. This period of benevolence coincides with the seven weeks following the full moon of the Jewish month of Av, which were also called the Weeks of Comfort. The readings for these weeks are comforting, promising peace and prosperity.

In the Celtic calendar Mary is associated with both Lughnasa and Beltane: Beltane because of spring’s rebirth, and Lughnasa/Marymass because of the comparison between the fruitfulness of the harvest and the new creation of childbirth, especially the emerging of the corn from within the ear. Because of her rising into heaven, Mary is sometimes called the patron of airline pilots and crews. Marymass is celebrated on August 15.