Raissa notes that the vocation of the apostle is to walk with eyes fixed on Christ. But, the contemplative also must keep his eyes on Christ, especially Christ crucified.
While the apostles act, speak, preach, the contemplative does not do so, called to pray for the entire Church.
Here is Raissa again, "It is because the role of contemplatives among us is to be mirrors of the Image of God, reservoirs of his grace and his love--the unfailing memory of the Eternal amongst us....A memory without which darkness would obscure the earth. A memory in which we possess the archives of sanctity, for the mystics receive the command to speak...."
Until God takes me totally in silence, in a place, in a real cell, not merely the cell of my mind, I shall share the crumbs of memory which God gives me.
Today, in France, we have seen the darkness which is covering the earth because of evil, because of those who do not know Christ and His Love.
"Be still and know that I am God" is the command of deep prayer. Love grows in the silence. But, one cannot yet see God, as one may be in the darkness of faith.
The entire Church needs the heart of the contemplative to be totally centered on God, to keep a heart just for Him as a reservoir for those who are on the front lines, in the spiritual warfare. Raissa notes that the number of contemplatives "do not necessarily raise the moral level of society of their day...The grace of sanctity is the fruit of fidelity. To be sanctified and pacified, society too must begin by being faithful. Grace is not hereditary, it is not the patrimony of any one people."
On this day of more death, we should pay attention to these words.