Bernadette Roberts (1931-2017) - 1 -
Née dans une famille catholique, elle entre chez les Carmélites à 17 ans.
Au bout de 9 ans elle quitte le couvent, car elle estime qu'elle est parvenue au bout de son chemin : l'union avec Dieu.
Elle reprend des études à l'Université, devient enseignante, se marie, donne naissance à 4 enfants.
À 45 ans elle se sépare de son mari et s'occupe seule de ses enfants.
Et, à sa grande surprise, elle entame un nouvel approfondissement de son chemin spirituel, qui la mène au Non-Soi. Elle a écrit plusieurs livres, le plus intéressant et étonnant étant :
The Experience of No-Self: A Contemplative Journey
traduit en français :
Vie Unitive - Aventure dans les profondeurs silencieuses de l'inconnu
(Les Deux Océans 1990) En 2014, dans son dernier livre, elle revient sur ses débuts sur la voie.
Puis, concernant l'état où elle se trouve, maintenant qu'elle est parvenue au bout du bout, elle déclare (ce qui n'étonnera pas les familiers de Mme Guyon ou de U.G.) : I hate to say it, but the Unitive State is not all it’s cracked up to
be - at least not as glorious as the literature makes it out. While at
first it’s all very wonderful and spectacular, yet after years of living
it, the unitive state is just one’s common everyday reality : namely,
that of a mature, well balanced human being, an ever Present grace to be
sure, but unspectacular and unglorious.
Looking back on the fervor and extraordinary graces of our beginnings,
and on the mystical transforming process, the mature unitive state is a
comparative let-down, it may even seem humdrum compared to what it took
to get there.
So once this state is fully revealed in daily life, it is a surprise to
find it unspectacular and not as the saints in their initial enthusiasm
had portrayed it.
The usual language to describe this state is of someone newly arrived
whose perspective is always comparative or relative to their previous
estate – the Nights, that is. Nowhere are we told anything about what
this state is like 20, 30, 40 years down the road, there is absolutely
no literature on it.
As it stands then, the impression is that there is no further to go and
that the unitive state is a kind of heaven on earth. To disabuse a
beginner of this, however, might only discourage him. At the same time,
it would be a great mistake to underrate this state, after all, it is
God’s own doing and the true estate of man on earth.
Nothing is of greater value than living this life in oneness with
God.
(Bernadette Roberts – Autobiography of the early years)