For A Friend, Two

When Elizabeth of the Trinity had only three months of life to live, she was ordered to write on her retreat towards death. Part of this treatise created in the throes of pain and suffering, was a section for her sister, Guite, who was married and had two children at the time.

Elizabeth wrote that the life of the contemplative formed the call of all Catholics, as I have noted in the long perfection series, using the Doctors of the Church and Garrigou-Lagrange.

But, the key to being open to the graces of both active and passive contemplation, as explained by Elizabeth, in keeping with those great saints who went before her, is the key of death to the self.

Here are some bullet points from one of Elizabeth's treatises.

• All are called to be in union with Christ.
• But, this involves a stripping of all things, people, attachments, as well as a withdrawal from all things.
• Even though one is married with children, one must learn to live in a solitude during the day, to forget the self, even in the midst of the cares of the world.
• Becoming perfect must accompany this solitude, this yearning for God in love and the yearning for perfection.
• Finding heaven on earth can only happen through the acceptance of self-forgetfulness.
• This finding of heaven has nothing to do with consolations, either in prayer or in life.
• Quoting St. John of the Cross, Elizabeth writes that the Kingdom of God is within one, in a place beyond the temptings of the world and the devil.
• One's will must be in perfect harmony with the will of God, and as long as one has "fancies" contrary to God's will, one cannot grow in either love or holiness.
• Purification must be part of prayer and the choices of daily life.
• To attain union with God, the soul must be "entirely surrendered" and the will"must be calmly lost in God's will."
• Simplicity of intention means that one seeks God alone, and not anything or anyone else.
• One must desire the likeness of God. "Without the likeness which comes from grace, eternal damnation awaits us."
• As we are made in the image and likeness of God, the image of God must be the focus of the imagination, memory and reason, (notice--the emotions do not count, period).

All of these points, and there are more, refer back to the long perfection series as well as to the mini-series on Elizabeth of the Trinity.

Remember this simple chart to union with God:

First step: orthodoxy

Second step: oral prayer; surrendering the will

Third step: meditation, which is the beginning of mental prayer--based on Scripture and life of Christ

Fourth step: dark night of the senses-beginning of purgation

Fifth step: dark night of the soul-continuation of purgation, including demise of the predominant fault

Sixth step: active or acquired contemplation-during purgation and into the illuminative state

Seventh step: illuminative state

Eighth step: infused contemplation

Ninth step: union.

Follow the tags. Go back and read Garrigou-Lagrange again and again and again...definitions are important.

For A Friend Today

Etheldredasplace: Perfection Series II:x

30 Jan 2014

Continuing the series on perfection, I have switched temporarily from Garrigou-Lagrange to the Interior Castle of St. Teresa of Avila. In this book, St. Teresa refers to the enlargement of the heart. Quoting Prime, Teresa writes, ...

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Perfection Series IV: Part Nineteen; Simplicity in Unity

22 Aug 2014

What falsity to wish to talk in a glowing style as if one were already in the seventh mansion of the interior castle, when one has not yet entered the fourth! How far superior is the simplicity of the Gospel! We say that a child's ...

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Beginning More on The Indwelling of the Trinity

07 May 2015

St. Teresa of Avila writes clearly on the Indwelling of the Trinity. Here is a selection from The Interior Castle or The Mansions. I have many more posts on this from the past, but this week, I am re-examining this truth.

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Etheldredasplace: “Long live the difference”

10 May 2015

from the Stanbrook Edition of Interior Castle.... .... dealing with the purgation of the soul by mortification and the enlightenment of the mind by meditation. There, too, appears the first idea of the Mansions, [25] and Fuente ...

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Brief Description from St. Teresa on the Indwelling

09 May 2015

A brief description of the unitive state from the Interior Castle. Here one sees the great revelation of the Indwelling. of the Holy Trinity which God desires us all to experience, to know...even while on earth. This is a repeat post, ...

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Etheldredasplace: The Force of The Soul

13 Jun 2015

The Interior Castle, First Manson, Chapter ii. The Maritains, who were both Benedictine Oblates, wrote this as well: "The study of the Sacred Doctrine and of Holy Scripture is also a normally necessary means of the attainment ...

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Very brief description of the illuminative state

09 May 2015

Very brief description of the illuminative state. Posted by Supertradmum. A mini-description of the illuminative state...leading to the unitive state. From a footnote, 418, in the online copy of the Interior Castle. Follow the tags for ...

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Etheldredasplace: Thoughts from 2009

10 Jul 2013

Catherine's Dialog and Teresa's Interior Castle give me comfort, as well as the knowledge that truth prevails despite so much spiritual warfare. But, as I am wedded to Truth, my way is not as hard as those who remain in ...

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Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux and John of the Cross

04 Aug 2013

In The Interior Castle she writes: O my God, how many troubles both interior and exterior must one suffer before entering the seventh mansion! Sometimes, while pondering over this I fear that, were they known beforehand, ...

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The passive purification of the senses and the spirit, continued

16 Oct 2013

St. Teresa speaks of the passive purification of the spirit in the first chapter of the sixth mansion of The Interior Castle. We read also in the life of St. Vincent de Paul that for four years he endured a trial of this type, which was ...

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Etheldredasplace: People Ask Me

24 Sep 2014

God rarely speaks in an audible voice, but He does speak through the interior movements of the Holy Spirit. Again, the teachings of the Church and common sense dictate what is good and true. The problem is usually not that ...

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Etheldredasplace: Why is the Catholic Church Weak?

29 May 2013

Tauler declares: "There is only one way to triumph over these obstacles: God would have to take complete possession of the interior of the soul and occupy it, which happens only to His true friends. He sent us His only Son in order that the holy life of the God-Man, His great and perfect ... This little citadel, wherein lies the self-will, must be stormed by God. If one keeps running back into the castle of the self, God cannot speak to the heart and mind and will. And, as John ...

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Check out the tags and remember, no one is even on the ladder of holiness unless he or she is orthodox, accepting the teachings of the Church. Check out the tags at the bottom here.

Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk

Recently, it has occurred to me, that the gross narcissism of the cultures of the West, has infiltrated the way Catholics think. Of course, for years, I have had the tag "thinking like Catholics" in order to bring people to a reality that one thinks certain things before one acts.

Many parishes and dioceses have initiated excellent sounding programs on "adult formation" and "evangelization" involving programs and courses on how to go out and bring people into the Catholic Faith.

Except for a few exceptions. all these programs concentrate on ACTION instead of on prayer and the levels of prayer.

No one, as I have noted many times on this blog, can be effective in the spiritual life of others unless one is willing to go through the tedious, hard, and sufferings times of purgation. No one.

There is only one Blessed Virgin Mary and one St. John the Baptist, who came into this world without sin, one from conception and one from a particular grace in the womb.

The rest of us, including Dear St. Joseph, had and have to work out our righteousness by cooperating with grace.

Narcissism stops grace dead.

More and more Catholics think they can evangelize without dealing with their predominant fault(s) and even venial sins.

The saint has dealt the death-blow to sin and can merit graces which are then efficacious in the lives of others.

If I pray for someone, and nothing happens, I do not say, "Oh, it is God's Will that so and so is not healed" or freed, or converted.

I go back to Our Lord and BEG Him to show me the blockages of my own sins which stop the efficacy of prayer.

Lord, show me my sins, my failings, my predominant fault for the sake of the Church...and so on.

The entire perfection series was written now several years ago not merely for the selfish to think that only they should get to heaven, but for the Church.

We cannot pretend to be saints. One either is or isn't. One is either in sanctifying grace and allowing God to purged one of all sin and even concupiscence, or one remains ineffective.

Recently, God called me to more penance. Now, those who know me or have followed this blog know how I live, but I have been called to more penance for the sake of souls. Daily, people die who have had no one to pray for them.

The majority of people go to hell. Sorry this is not my idea, but those of the saints, including the great Augustine.

God has given me two diets through my excellent, Catholic and holy doctor--of a rare breed.

Red meat once a week, no fatty meat, (I was invited out for pork ribs this evening and had to say no), no Ramen noodles, or mac and cheese or other poor food. I had already given up deserts over a year ago, so that is not an issue. Now, I have to somehow give up poor food.

Now, I can add some physical power to prayer.

Yet, some of my prayers are not answered. I ask God why....and here is the answer.

Mark 9:27-29 Douay-Rheims

27 And when he was come into the house, his disciples secretly asked him: Why could not we cast him out?

28 And he said to them: This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

29 And departing from thence, they passed through Galilee, and he would not that any man should know it.

Souls are at stake. I love many people. I never stop loving someone whom I have loved. I love my ex, my old boyfriends, my family members who I do not see because of circumstances. I love new friends and old friends. I love students I have taught-special ones, and many priests who have brought me closer to God.

Love is the impetus for intercessory prayer, but fasting and purgation must accompany such prayer.

Have you been praying for someone for a long time?

Maybe God is asking you to do more, to be more severe with yourself in order to join in the merit of Christ on the Cross.

1 Thessalonians 2Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)

2 For yourselves know, brethren, our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain:

2 But having suffered many things before, and been shamefully treated (as you know) at Philippi, we had confidence in our God, to speak unto you the gospel of God in much carefulness.

3 For our exhortation was not of error, nor of uncleanness, nor in deceit:

4 But as we were approved by God that the gospel should be committed to us: even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, who proveth our hearts.

5 For neither have we used, at any time, the speech of flattery, as you know; nor taken an occasion of covetousness, God is witness:

6 Nor sought we glory of men, neither of you, nor of others.

7 Whereas we might have been burdensome to you, as the apostles of Christ: but we became little ones in the midst of you, as if a nurse should cherish her children:

8 So desirous of you, we would gladly impart unto you not only the gospel of God, but also our own souls: because you were become most dear unto us.

9 For you remember, brethren, our labour and toil: working night and day, lest we should be chargeable to any of you, we preached among you the gospel of God.

10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holily, and justly, and without blame, we have been to you that have believed:

11 As you know in what manner, entreating and comforting you, (as a father doth his children,)

12 We testified to every one of you, that you would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.

13 Therefore, we also give thanks to God without ceasing: because, that when you had received of us the word of the hearing of God, you received it not as the word of men, but (as it is indeed) the word of God, who worketh in you that have believed.

14 For you, brethren, are become followers of the churches of God which are in Judea, in Christ Jesus: for you also have suffered the same things from your own coutrymen, even as they have from the Jews,

15 Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and the prophets, and have persecuted us, and please not God, and are adversaries to all men;

16 Prohibiting us to speak to the Gentiles, that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always: for the wrath of God is come upon them to the end.

17 But we, brethren, being taken away from you for a short time, in sight, not in heart, have hastened the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.

18 For we would have come unto you, I Paul indeed, once and again: but Satan hath hindered us.

19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of glory? Are not you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?

20 For you are our glory and joy.

Here is a good prayer...I hope you can read it.

Thoughts on Prayer

In this post, I look at two aspects of prayer. The first part is self-explanatory. The second revolves around understanding stigmatics.

Firstly, this post comes from a discussion I had with a friend on intercessory prayer. She is involved in doing reparation for members of her family who have fallen away from the Faith. As Christ told us, some prayer needs to be coupled with fasting, or, to extrapolate, other penances. My friend and I discussed how real prayer, entering into the spiritual world in order to do reparation, or intercede for others, is downright exhausting. (Actually, doing manual labor, such as laundry, or cleaning, or gardening, is a rest from intense prayer, and if one is doing this in silence, prayer continues, but at a lesser intensity.)

This is why scheduling and pacing prayer, as in the Benedictine day, an example given below, is so important. One needs breaks of other work, but one needs to keep up the prayer by pacing it throughout the day. This idea came from the genius of St. Benedict. Here is an example from a monastery in America.

Through the Day



Sunday Schedule

4:00 A.M. - Vigils (choral office in church) lasts about an hour and fifteen minutes.

6:00 A.M. - Lauds (in church) followed by breakfast for guests from 6:30 to 7:10 am in the monastic refectory.

8:45 A.M. - Terce (in church) lasts about 10 minutes.

9:15 A.M. - Conventual Mass (Eucharist) followed by refreshments in the Guest Reception Area.

11:30 A.M. - Sext (in church) lasts about ten minutes, followed by Light Meal in the monastic refectory, 11:45 to 12:30 P.M.

4:00 P.M. - None (in church) lasts about ten minutes, followed by Main Meal in the monastic refectory.

5:30 P.M. - Solemn Vespers and Benediction (in church) lasts about 45 minutes.

7:30 P.M. - Compline (in church) lasts about 15 minutes, followed by Nightly Silence.

Daily Schedule

4:00 A.M. - Vigils (choral office in church) lasts about one hour.

5:45 A.M. - Lauds (in church) lasts about thirty minutes, followed by Mass. Breakfast for guests in the Guest Breakfast Room from 7:00 - 7:45 A.M.

8:45 A.M. - Terce (in church) lasts about ten minutes.

9:00 A.M. - Work meeting for guests outside the Gift Shop. Work for All.

12:40 P.M. - End of work period.

1:00 P.M. - Sext (in church) lasts about ten minutes, followed by Main Meal in the monastic refectory.

3:30 P.M. - None (in church) lasts about ten minutes.

5:20 P.M. - Exposition and Eucharistic Adoration (in Church).

5:50 P.M. - Vespers (in church) lasts about thirty minutes.

6:20 P.M. - Light Meal until 6:50 P.M. in the monastic refectory.

7:30 P.M. - Compline (in church) lasts about fifteen minutes, followed by Nightly Silence.

Most nights, I try to be in bed by half-past nine so that I can get up early, or as God asks, very early, like three or four, to pray intercessory prayers for certain people

Real prayer is not merely saying words or sitting in silence. although that can be part of the day.

Intercessory prayer reminds me of a wrestling match. One enters into prayer knowing that God asks for suffering for those for whom one prays. Intercessory prayer can be very tiring.

My friend recalled prayer times when she was drained. Sometimes, if God wants a concentration of prayer, He will allow her to become ill with severe arthritis, so that she cannot do anything for three days but pray.

Last week, when I had that histamine reaction, God wanted me to stop doing things, including talking, and be quiet in intercessory prayer. I had become too busy.

The prayer of quiet demands attention and focusing. I compare it to the August chorus of birds in the early morning, now about five.

Early in the summer, in late May, early June, the chorus resounds with the songs of hundreds of birds, starting about half-past three in the morning. Now, in late summer, the songs of a few birds, a cardinal or two, a few robins, sing in a schola rather than in a chorale. But, these animals focus on their songs, intent on praising God, as they do at this time of year. This focusing only lasts a short time, Then, these birds rest, do a few "chores", fly about, and rest again, eating as well in between singing. But, the morning chorus only happens once a day, a focusing of song.

Birds sing all day, but at times, their song is more intense than at other times.

So, too, with some intercessory prayer, which can be a real struggle. And, what those who do not understand the contemplative life do not know, is that even encounters with God can be exhausting.

Again, I refer to the limp of Jacob.

Why a contemplative does not "work" in the world is that he IS working, on the threshold of the spiritual world, praising God, interceding, listening.

This takes time and energy.

Secondly, some people with whom I have spoken, do not understand the life of the stigmatic.

The stigmatic has crossed over the threshold of the spiritual world because Christ has invited them to be one with Him in His Passion. Those who do accept these graces of complete union in the physical suffering of Christ mirror what the contemplative experiences spiritually, without the signs and physical suffering at this level of intense pain. The stigmata is a great gift of love.

The stigmatic intercedes when in union with Christ, carrying on, as St. Paul noted, the sufferings of Christ in this world. Such special souls allow their bodies to be one with Christ, for a day, or longer. The example of Padre Pio, Francis of Assisi, (the first recorded stigmatic), Marthe Robin, and many others provides an example of intense intercessory prayer of love.

They become one with Christ in love, not only for the Savior, but for those for whom they suffer in intercession.

I am astounded when Catholics think that the life of the contemplative nun or monk or priest or lay person is an easy life, without work. Prayer is work. And, it can be exhausting, as my friend said.

Those who only value work which is physical and has monetary reward simply do not understand the ways of God in deep prayer.

The stigmatic teaches us the extreme of the loving union of those who intercede for us daily.

UPDATE: After I wrote this post, I checked my e-mail, and lo and behold--synchronicity.

Here is the note:

Prayer Takes Effort by The Hermit

I may be wrong but I think nothing needs so much effort as prayer to God. If anyone wants to pray, the demons try to interrupt the prayer, for they know that prayer is the only thing that hinders them. All the other efforts in a religious life, whether they are made vehemently or gently, have room for a measure of rest. But we need to pray till our dying breath. That is the great struggle. ~Sr. Benedicta Ward, SLG; The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks

Not reading mystical books

Both the great St. Teresa of Avila, and Saint Veronica Giuliani warn against the reading of mystical books. A priest told me years ago that it was dangerous for someone to read mystical writings on prayer as one could very easily think one is holier, more advanced that one actually is.

This advice proves to be ignored by the vast majority of Catholic women who think they can skip to contemplation, a point I have made on this blog many times, without developing meditation and without going through the levels of purification in the Dark Night.

My own unpacking of mystical texts has been mostly from the viewpoint of a teacher trying to slow people down by showing the great difficulties of each level of prayer. I myself, am a beginner.

To imagine one is holier and more advanced than one really is actually prevents one from growing in holiness. And, the real litmus test remains very simple. Is one actually loving as Christ loves? I would add, is one living the evangelical counsels as much as possible in the world?

Again, I have written many times on "middle-class" spirituality-that mind-set which many Catholic women adopt by wanting to be saints without suffering. They want all the consolations of life, no suffering, and yet, all the goodies God wants to give them.

I am reminded of a vision I had in England in 2011. I was frustrated by the lack of orthodoxy in a particular charismatic group, which, at that time, included some friends of mine. In this vision, I saw Christ on the Cross, suffering, with copious amounts of blood dripping from His wounds. His agony was occurring in a typical English field, not on Calvary. Strewn all over this field, and under His Cross, where thousands of those candies called Smarties. Charismatics were bending over picking up the Smarties instead of looking at Christ on the Cross.

I shared this with someone who acted almost immediately, left Charismatic prayer groups, knowing this was true-people wanted candy from God and not suffering, consolation and not the Cross.

One reason I used Garrigou-Lagrange in my long perfection series was that he presented the levels of prayer and the way to holiness rationally, and avoided, like a good teacher, falling into subjectivity.

His emphasis on purification and suffering can be found in the lectures of Father Chad Ripperger online, a priest who has told his audiences that most people have not even begun to follow the path of holiness and that most people think they are holier than they really are.

I began to read the mystics in my late twenties, and put St. Teresa back on the shelf, as I realized the danger of thinking I was making more progress than I really was. Then, the wise priest cautioned me and others not to get ahead of reality.

But, the real step in the right direction for me has been much suffering and the acceptance of that suffering, both physical and spiritual. Once one is pulled into the Dark Night, one knows where one actually is, and that is a good thing. If a person does not want to suffer that purification, he or she will fall back into the "candy seeking" stage again and again.

We do not have time for this waffling back and forth. We do not have time to look for Smarties, or read books beyond our ken.

The book which saved me from thinking I was holier than I was had to be The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence which I highlighted in the Framing Prayer series last month.
Such simplicity keeps one rooted in reality.

Again, taking up the holy priest and Fr. Ripperger's warnings about not thinking one is holier than one is, I caution readers not to read or study too much mysticism without truly, truly the daily examen of sin explained also in the Framing Prayer series.

Go back and look seriously at the levels of prayer from Garrigou-Lagrange in the long perfection series, and be honest about what level one finds one resting in.

Becoming holy is a full-time response to God's graces. The real key is saying yes to suffering, willing suffering and purification.

But, remember my most constant warning, one cannot become holy without first being completely orthodox in all things. One must conform one's mind to the teachings of the Church, all the teachings, before stepping on the ladder of the levels of prayer.

Without orthodoxy, there is no sanctity.

More later...

More on Why Prayers Are Not Answered

How very pleasing to God is the willing desire to suffer for Him. "Very pleasing to Me, dearest daughter, is the willing desire to bear every pain and fatigue, even unto death, for the salvation of souls, for the more the soul endures, the more she shows that she loves Me; loving Me she comes to know more of My truth, and the more she knows, the more pain and intolerable grief she feels at the offenses committed against Me. You asked Me to sustain you, and to punish the faults of others in you, and you did not remark that you were really asking for love, light, and knowledge of the truth, since I have already told you that, by the increase of love, grows grief and pain, wherefore he that grows in love grows in grief. Therefore, I say to you all, that you should ask, and it will be given you, for I deny nothing to him who asks of Me in truth. Consider that the love of divine charity is so closely joined in the soul with perfect patience, that neither can leave the soul without the other. For this reason (if the soul elect to love Me) she should elect to endure pains for Me in whatever mode or circumstance I may send them to her. Patience cannot be proved in any other way than by suffering, and patience is united with love as has been said. Therefore bear yourselves with manly courage, for, unless you do so, you will not prove yourselves to be spouses of My Truth, and faithful children, nor of the company of those who relish the taste of My honor, and the salvation of souls." from the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena.


This type of loving intercessory prayer is not the same as that of the victim souls. I believe victim souls are called to that special vocation from birth. We see this type of sublime holiness in the lives of such as Marthe Robin, Alexandrina da Costa, Gemma Galgani and Veronica Giuliani among others.

Victim souls have an entire life of intercession, usually through the joining of their bodies and souls to the Passion of Christ. One cannot choose to be a victim soul, as it is a vocation usually found at a very young age. 

These souls are rare people. However, the suffering explained in St. Catherine's Dialogue is also reparatory intercession, but part of a more active, and not victim soul type of vocation, In other words, we can all pray in the manner explained by God above. One can choose to offer up one's life for another, like Michael Voris' mother did for her sons, and like someone I know, a local saint, did for the conversion of her husband. The proof of God's acceptance of these heroic gestures would be the ultimate conversions of those for whom the lives were offered, and, indeed, in both cases, two men were converted through the intercessory offering.

What God is revealing to St. Catherine would be more the "ordinary" manner of intercession, involving daily courage and suffering, as well as patience, perhaps for a husband, a wife or children.

Like St. Therese, one may choose a stranger for whom to pray, but one must be careful. Several friends have told me of situations in which they took on praying for people and in the process, it became clear that these good pray-ers, simply were not holy enough to take on the type of spiritual warfare necessary.

Sometimes one is tempted to take on praying for something or someone which is simply too difficult, even too evil.

Stories of people in hell who revealed that the reason they were there was that they did not listen to friends' exhortations, or storied of people in purgatory, who asked for prayers, indicate the seriousness and need for intercessory suffering.

This week, realizing that some intercession I was doing needed more prayer and fasting, I asked God what I could do more than what I have been doing. Within hours of this prayer, my doctor put me on a low carb diet. This will be very difficult, as I have been eating a lot of poor food, like Ramen noodles,potatoes, and cheap tortillas for quesadillas, I shall need to spend more money, which I do not have yet, for more protein and less carbs. So, this is a hardship, but I definitely know this is an answer to prayer. I shall have to eat even less than what I have been, which is only two full meals a day. But, God desires this suffering for souls for whom I am interceding daily. Souls are worth every bit of hardship.

God is calling all of us to love, love, love. Patience, suffering, love...

In these virtues, we are called to become more and more like Christ in this world, and closer to Him in the next.

To be continued...

Why Prayers Are Not Answered

Many months ago, I wrote, in response to a reader's question on the efficacy of prayer, that the more one becomes holy and pure in heart, the more efficacious one's prayers become.

Thus, the saints in heaven can answer our prayers, according to God's Will, as they have merited eternal life and live in holiness and grace.

St. Catherine of Siena, a favorite on this blog, wrote in her Dialogue that the prayers for the evil and sinners in the world are not answered because those who are praying have not fulfilled the necessary steps to find holiness.

These steps form a little summary of the entire perfection series, but these are worth repeating in the context of the growing evil which is surrounding all of us.

First step: One must ask for self-knowledge, and the grace to see one's sins, imperfections and predominant fault. Only with self-knowledge can one be in the truly humble place before God in presenting prayers to Him.

Second step: Knowledge of God demands that we seek His Face, seek Him daily and answer His call to find Him in the desert of the Dark Night of both the senses and the spirit. True reparation follows this cleansing of the soul, mind, heart and body.

Here are a few selections from her work to underline these points:

Man is placed above all creatures, and not beneath them, and he cannot be satisfied or content except in something greater than himself. Greater than himself there is nothing but Myself, the Eternal God. Therefore I alone can satisfy him, and, because he is deprived of this satisfaction by his guilt, he remains in continual torment and pain. Weeping follows pain, and when he begins to weep, the wind strikes the tree of self-love, which he has made the principle of all his being.

...

So, that soul, wishing to know and follow the truth more manfully, and lifting her desires first for herself -- for she considered that a soul could not be of use, whether in doctrine, example, or prayer, to her neighbor, if she did not first profit herself, that is, if she did not acquire virtue in herself -- addressed four requests to the Supreme and Eternal Father. The first was for herself; the second for the reformation of the Holy Church; the third a general prayer for the whole world, and in particular for the peace of Christians who rebel, with much lewdness and persecution, against the Holy Church; in the fourth and last, she besought the Divine Providence to provide for things in general, and in particular, for a certain case with which she was concerned.

...

How the desire of this soul grew when God showed her the neediness of the world. This desire was great and continuous, but grew much more, when the First Truth showed her the neediness of the world, and in what a tempest of offense against God it lay. And she had understood this the better from a letter, which she had received from the spiritual Father of her soul, in which he explained to her the penalties and intolerable dolor caused by offenses against God, and the loss of souls, and the persecutions of Holy Church. All this lighted the fire of her holy desire with grief for the offenses, and with the joy of the lively hope, with which she waited for God to provide against such great evils. And, since the soul seems, in such communion, sweetly to bind herself fast within herself and with God, and knows better His truth, inasmuch as the soul is then in God, and God in the soul, as the fish is in the sea, and the sea in the fish, she desired the arrival of the morning (for the morrow was a feast of Mary) in order to hear Mass. And, when the morning came, and the hour of the Mass, she sought with anxious desire her accustomed place; and, with a great knowledge of herself, being ashamed of her own imperfection, appearing to herself to be the cause of all the evil that was happening throughout the world, conceiving a hatred and displeasure against herself, and a feeling of holy justice, with which knowledge, hatred, and justice, she purified the stains which seemed to her to cover her guilty soul, she said: "O Eternal Father, I accuse myself before You, in order that You may punish me for my sins in this finite life, and, inasmuch as my sins are the cause of the sufferings which my neighbor must endure, I implore You, in Your kindness, to punish them in my person."

...

Then, the Eternal Truth seized and drew more strongly to Himself her desire, doing as He did in the Old Testament, for when the sacrifice was offered to God, a fire descended and drew to Him the sacrifice that was acceptable to Him; so did the sweet Truth to that soul, in sending down the fire of the clemency of the Holy Spirit, seizing the sacrifice of desire that she made of herself, saying: "Do you not know, dear daughter, that all the sufferings, which the soul endures, or can endure, in this life, are insufficient to punish one smallest fault, because the offense, being done to Me, who am the Infinite Good, calls for an infinite satisfaction? However, I wish that you should know, that not all the pains that are given to men in this life are given as punishments, but as corrections, in order to chastise a son when he offends; though it is true that both the guilt and the penalty can be expiated by the desire of the soul, that is, by true contrition, not through the finite pain endured, but through the infinite desire; because God, who is infinite, wishes for infinite love and infinite grief. Infinite grief I wish from My creature in two ways: in one way, through her sorrow for her own sins, which she has committed against Me her Creator; in the other way, through her sorrow for the sins which she sees her neighbors commit against Me. Of such as these, inasmuch as they have infinite desire, that is, are joined to Me by an affection of love, and therefore grieve when they offend Me, or 16 see Me offended, their every pain, whether spiritual or corporeal, from wherever it may come, receives infinite merit, and satisfies for a guilt which deserved an infinite penalty, although their works are finite and done in finite time; but, inasmuch as they possess the virtue of desire, and sustain their suffering with desire, and contrition, and infinite displeasure against their guilt, their pain is held worthy. Paul explained this when he said: If I had the tongues of angels, and if I knew the things of the future and gave my body to be burned, and have not love, it would be worth nothing to me. The glorious Apostle thus shows that finite works are not valid, either as punishment or recompense, without the condiment of the affection of love.

Third step: Only when the soul is immersed in the love of God are prayers truly answered in power and according to His Will.

"I have shown you, dearest daughter, that the guilt is not punished in this finite time by any pain which is sustained purely as such. And I say, that the guilt is punished by the pain which is endured through the desire, love, and contrition of the heart; not by virtue of the pain, but by virtue of the desire of the soul; inasmuch as desire and every virtue is of value, and has life in itself, through Christ crucified, My only begotten Son, in so far as the soul has drawn her love from Him, and virtuously follows His virtues, that is, His Footprints. In this way, and in no other, are virtues of value, and in this way, pains satisfy for the fault, by the sweet and intimate love acquired in the knowledge of My goodness, and in the bitterness and contrition of heart acquired by knowledge of one's self and one's own thoughts. And this knowledge generates a hatred and displeasure against sin, and against the soul's own sensuality, through which, she deems herself worthy of pains and unworthy of reward." The sweet Truth continued: "See how, by contrition of the heart, together with love, with true patience, and with true humility, deeming themselves worthy of pain and unworthy of reward, such souls endure the patient humility in which consists the above-mentioned satisfaction. You ask me, then, for pains, so that I may receive satisfaction for the offenses, which are done against Me by My Creatures, and you further ask the will to know and love Me, who am the Supreme Truth. Wherefore I reply that this is the way, if you will arrive at a perfect knowledge and enjoyment of Me, the Eternal Truth, that you should never go outside the knowledge of yourself, and, by humbling yourself in the valley of humility, you will know Me and yourself, from which knowledge you will draw all that is necessary. No virtue, my daughter, can have life in itself except through charity, and humility, which is the foster-mother and nurse of charity. In self-knowledge, then, you will humble yourself, seeing that, in yourself, you do not even exist; for your very being, as you will learn, is derived from Me, since I have loved both you and others before you were in existence; and that, through the ineffable love which I had for you, wishing to re-create you to Grace, I have washed you, and re-created you in the Blood of My only-begotten Son, spilt with so great a fire of love. This Blood teaches the truth to him, who, by self-knowledge, dissipates the cloud of self-love, and in no other way can he learn. Then the soul will inflame herself in this knowledge of Me with an 17 ineffable love, through which love she continues in constant pain; not, however, a pain which afflicts or dries up the soul, but one which rather fattens her; for since she has known My truth, and her own faults, and the ingratitude of men, she endures intolerable suffering, grieving because she loves Me; for, if she did not love Me, she would not be obliged to do so; whence it follows immediately, that it is right for you, and My other servants who have learnt My truth in this way, to sustain, even unto death, many tribulations and injuries and insults in word and deed, for the glory and praise of My Name; thus will you endure and suffer pains. Do you, therefore, and My other servants, carry yourselves with true patience, with grief for your sins, and with love of virtue for the glory and praise of My Name. If you act thus, I will satisfy for your sins, and for those of My other servants, inasmuch as the pains which you will endure will be sufficient, through the virtue of love, for satisfaction and reward, both in you and in others. In yourself you will receive the fruit of life, when the stains of your ignorance are effaced, and I shall not remember that you ever offended Me. In others I will satisfy through the love and affection which you have to Me, and I will give to them according to the disposition with which they will receive My gifts. In particular, to those who dispose themselves, humbly and with reverence, to receive the doctrine of My servants, will I remit both guilt and penalty, since they will thus come to true knowledge and contrition for their sins. So that, by means of prayer, and their desire of serving Me, they receive the fruit of grace, receiving it humbly in greater or less degree, according to the extent of their exercise of virtue and grace in general. I say then, that, through your desires, they will receive remission for their sins. 

The more I pray, the more I realize how unworthy my prayers are and how far I am from meriting good for myself and others. The sufferings endured by me are only good insofar as these are united in the love of God for myself and for others.

Prayers are not answered unless a person has been stripped of ego and the selfishness of certain desires not in keeping with God's Will.

People ask me to pray for them daily, and I do. Yesterday, on my "down day",  I could get much more prayers said, more meditation and more affective contemplation done in the busy weeks prior. I thank God that I was ill so that I could be in His Presence as in the days before I came here to this little box room.

The purgation demanded by God must come before one experiences truly efficacious prayer. Here is St. Catherine again, from the words of God.

But I do not, in general, grant to these others, for whom they pray, satisfaction for the penalty due to them, but, only for their guilt, since they are not disposed, on their side, to receive, with perfect love, My love, and that of My servants. They do not receive their grief with bitterness, and perfect contrition for the sins they have committed, but with imperfect love and contrition, wherefore they have not, as others, remission of the penalty, but only of the guilt; because such complete satisfaction 18 requires proper dispositions on both sides, both in him that gives and him that receives. Wherefore, since they are imperfect, they receive imperfectly the perfection of the desires of those who offer them to Me, for their sakes, with suffering; and, inasmuch as I told you that they do receive remission, this is indeed the truth, that, by that way which I have told you, that is, by the light of conscience, and by other things, satisfaction is made for their guilt; for, beginning to learn, they vomit forth the corruption of their sins, and so receive the gift of grace. "These are they who are in a state of ordinary charity, wherefore, if they have trouble, they receive it in the guise of correction, and do not resist over much the clemency of the Holy Spirit, but, coming out of their sin, they receive the life of grace. But if, like fools, they are ungrateful, and ignore Me and the labors of My servants done for them, that which was given them, through mercy, turns to their own ruin and judgment, not through defect of mercy, nor through defect of him who implored the mercy for the ingrate, but solely through the man's own wretchedness and hardness, with which, with the hands of his free will, he has covered his heart, as it were, with a diamond, which, if it be not broken by the Blood, can in no way be broken. And yet, I say to you, that, in spite of his hardness of heart, he can use his free will while he has time, praying for the Blood of My Son, and let him with his own hand apply It to the diamond over his heart and shiver it, and he will receive the imprint of the Blood which has been paid for him. But, if he delays until the time be past, he has no remedy, because he has not used the dowry which I gave him, giving him memory so as to remember My benefits, intellect, so as to see and know the truth, affection, so that he should love Me, the Eternal Truth, whom he would have known through the use of his intellect. This is the dowry which I have given you all, and which ought to render fruit to Me, the Father; but, if a man barters and sells it to the devil, the devil, if he choose, has a right to seize on everything that he has acquired in this life. And, filling his memory with the delights of sin, and with the recollection of shameful pride, avarice, self-love, hatred, and unkindness to his neighbors (being also a persecutor of My servants), with these miseries, he has obscured his intellect by his disordinate will. Let such as these receive the eternal pains, with their horrible stench, inasmuch as they have not satisfied for their sins with contrition and displeasure of their guilt. Now, therefore, you have understood how suffering satisfies for guilt by perfect contrition, not through the finite pain; and such as have this contrition in perfection satisfy not only for the guilt, but also for the penalty which follows the guilt, as I have already said when speaking in general; and if they satisfy for the guilt alone, that is, if, having abandoned mortal sin, they receive grace, and have not sufficient contrition and love to satisfy for the penalty also, they go to the pains of Purgatory, passing through the second and last means of satisfaction. "So you see that satisfaction is made, through the desire  of the soul united to Me, who am the Infinite Good, in greater or less degree, according to the measure of love, obtained by the desire and prayer of the recipient. Wherefore, with that very same measure with which a man measures to Me, do he receive in himself the measure of My goodness. Labor, therefore, to increase the fire of your desire, and let not a moment pass without crying to Me with humble voice, or without continual prayers before Me for your neighbors. I say this to you and to the father of your soul, whom I have given you on earth. Bear yourselves with manful courage, and make yourselves dead to all your own sensuality.

Fourth step: One must pray in the Will of God. One prays for God's Perfect Will to be done, and not merely seeking one's or another's own will. Diligent prayer forms our will to God's Will. Then, things happen.

The more we have been purified, the more will be the efficacy of our prayers

to be continued...

Three Definitions from The Maritains

Silent Prayer: "...not meditation in which the soul is occupied in considering ideas, concepts and images, but a wordless, intuitive, and quite simple prayer, a loving attention to God in which the soul is primarily occupied in letting God having His way with it and which, as St. Thomas expresses it, it suffers divine things in a silence void of words, concepts and images." 

Recueillement: "an inner state which, far from being ‘concentration’ due to voluntary effort, is rather a gift received, a quiet absorption of the soul which, far from being inertia, is a secret and unifying activity too deep to be perceived."

Contemplation: "Christian contemplation is the fruit of the gift of Wisdom; and this gift, although a habitus of the intelligence… depends essentially on charity, and consequently on sanctifying grace, and causes us to know God by a sort of connaturality – in an affective, experimental and obscure manner, because superior to every concept and image."

More on this later today....

More Musings....

Well, my tech adviser, STS, has decided that my readers will be able, being so trained in arcane words, to follow a new blog called Recueillement. 

As he is traveling hither and yon for two weeks, this will not be in place until August 15th, along with the new forum. So, watch this space....

The reason, of course, I want Recueillement for a title is that the new blog will be based on reflections, meditations and contemplation. It also means a moment of reverence... or quiet absorption --perfect, for writings about God.

Musing, again, on this word, I discussed with STS the fact that the French, who invented the word, seem so much better at this act of recollection than the sons and daughters of the Anglo-Saxons, the Americans and British peoples.

STS claims it is part of the French character to be so inclined to reflection. I wonder...

Not having any bone, blood, or tissue of Anglo-Saxon in me, I can identify with recueillement and those of you who followed the various Maritain series will recognize the word. If you could remember Etheldredasplace, you can easily handle this label.

So, why is it that certain people's have a character for action and some for contemplation? Why is France the home of so many contemplative orders, even today, when these types of orders are becoming extinct in other parts of the West?

I suspect the French penchant for philosophy and art have something to do with recueillement. The last time I was in France, this past January, of course, my confreres and I ended up in a tavern drinking various things and talking about philosophy, liturgy, Pope Francis, and not the weather.

This type of discussion would be common in my experience of a certain type of Frenchman, as well as the British expats. Recueillement would be second-nature to such people. Needless to say, I am usually the only woman in these discussions, being interested in these topics rather than in food, fashion, or kids....Oh, well. But, therefore, I blog....

Musing on recueillement reminds me of a comment from Raissa:

All the sources are in You ...
Every great vocation gives one called the ability of a certain union with God, in particular relative to whose essence is transcendent to the multiplicity of his attributes; and very marked vocations are distinguished from each other by their relatedness to a particular the divine attributes...

Btw, would you have guessed that Garrigou-Lagrange was the spiritual director of the Maritain's Thomist Circle?

Interior/Exterior Presence ofGod

A few months ago, when I was in southern Illinois for several months, I lived in a house which belonged to a friend of mine. He was selling the house, as he lived elsewhere and no longer had any need for this place. At the time, I did not realize that the Jesuits had come this far west and south, in a town not too far from where I was living.

For years, members of my friend's family, all good, practicing, orthodox Catholics, enjoyed living in this house. The atmosphere of the building radiated peace and joy. Obviously, the spiritual lives of the members of that family had made that a place where one could sense God's Presence, even in a city which was growing more and more Godless.

This external sense of the Presence of God helped me to pray daily, following my little Benedictine schedule with ease. That the world brought hassles into my life, like the local needed trips to the local restaurant, which we dubbed the "evil Mac's", where young people who dabbled in the occult gathered, or like the neighboring houses owned and dwelt in by those into porn, did not matter as I could shut the door and enter my little chapel and be in the Presence of God.

The exterior Presence of God may be experienced, of course, in every Catholic Church, and in some houses where holy people have lived or do live. Hopefully, many readers experience God's Presence in their own family homes. The creation of domestic churches, that is, holy families, allows God to dwell our midst.

However, I had to leave that little haven and be in a completely different type of situation, where God's Presence had to be perceived in a different manner-in the cell within. When one lives in places where God has been denied entrance, one must find Him within one's own soul.

If you recall my little series on the Indwelling of the Holy Trinity, you will remember that all baptized persons who live in sanctifying grace can find God within. This Indwelling of the Trinity, the interior Presence of God, transcends the experience of evil in particular places, and, even, in particular people.

Last night, I became aware of the God within, the Indwelling of the Trinity, and was able to rest in that Presence in the midst of some persistent and heavy spiritual warfare. God showed me in this situation that I could experience the type of peace anywhere once I was aware of His internal Presence.

This awareness belongs to all of us. This is not a dramatically emotional experience, but a steady peace, and a complete resting in God, without anxiety or stress, even when one finds one's self in the middle of chaos and the disorder of evil.

In the coming days of tribulation, the interior Presence of God will guide us and give us peace in the midst of turmoil and grave sin, as the darkness of evil will become more and more obvious.

I share this moment, which is becoming a way of life for me, a steady resting in the Indwelling of the Trinity, as God is calling His People to this state of the lack of anxiety and stress.

We shall be called upon soon to reach out to those who will not be able to withstand alone the coming onslaught of evil.

Places which exude the exterior Presence of God may become rare, or even, non-existent, in one's immediate areas.

Find the God Within now, and practice the Presence of God so that the Church may be manifested where you live.

And, please keep praying so that I can set up  little place like I experienced on the plains of southern Illinois--a little house of prayer and rest for the Church Militant.

btw....What would America be like today if the French has won the Seven Year's War in the States?

Check out this map...https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nouvelle-France_map-en.svg And, some of my Canadian friends claim that their country was founded by a company, the Hudson Bay Company, which has an interesting history.

From Today's Office of Readings And More

Looking towards the darkness where one finds God is a metaphor for the seeking of purgation and cleansing of all sin in order to be illumined by Christ...Bonaventure is calling all of us to deep meditation and contemplation.

...we must suspend all the operations of the mind and we must transform the peak of our affections, directing them to God alone. This is a sacred mystical experience. It cannot be comprehended by anyone unless he surrenders himself to it; nor can he surrender himself to it unless he longs for it; nor can he long for it unless the Holy Spirit, whom Christ sent into the world, should come and inflame his innermost soul. Hence the Apostle says that this mystical wisdom is revealed by the Holy Spirit.
If you ask how such things can occur, seek the answer in God’s grace, not in doctrine; in the longing of the will, not in the understanding; in the sighs of prayer, not in research; seek the bridegroom not the teacher; God and not man; darkness not daylight; and look not to the light but rather to the raging fire that carries the soul to God with intense fervour and glowing love. The fire is God, and the furnace is in Jerusalem, fired by Christ in the ardour of his loving passion. Only he understood this who said: My soul chose hanging and my bones death. Anyone who cherishes this kind of death can see God, for it is certainly true that: No man can look upon me and live.
Let us die, then, and enter into the darkness, silencing our anxieties, our passions and all the fantasies of our imagination. Let us pass over with the crucified Christ from this world to the Father, so that, when the Father has shown himself to us, we can say with Philip: It is enough. We may hear with Paul: My grace is sufficient for you; and we can rejoice with David, saying: My flesh and my heart fail me, but God is the strength of my heart and my heritage for ever. Blessed be the Lord for ever, and let all the people say: Amen. Amen!

And from Bonaventure's book on gaining holiness of life...

All His life long, Jesus Christ Our Lord was an example of poverty. Let me tell you, O holy virgin, and all you who profess poverty, let me tell you, how poor the Son of God and King of Angels was whilst He lived in this world. He was so poor that oftentimes He did not know which way to turn for a lodging. Frequently, He and His Apostles were compelled to wander out of the city and sleep where they could. It is with reference to such a happening that St. Mark the Evangelist writes: "Having viewed all things round about, when now the eventide was come, He went out to Bethania with the twelve."

These words St. Bede explains as follows : "After looking all around and making enquiries as to whether anyone was prepared to give Him hospitality for He was so poor that no one looked upon Him with pleasure He could not find a dwelling open to Him in the town."  In similar strain St. Matthew writes: "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air nests ; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head."

Did you never read, did you never hear what Christ the Lord said of poverty to His Apostles? It occurs in the Gospel of St. Matthew. "Be not solicitous, therefore, saying, what shall we eat, or, what shall we drink. Your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things."; Here is something else He said. It is from St. Luke. "When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, did you want anything? But they said: Nothing."

P.S. Can you believe the priest at Mass this morning did not use the readings of the Mass for St. Bonaventure, or the preface applicable.

Sigh....just another day here.

Framing Prayer 25 Jesuits and Dying to Self

Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for reward, save that of knowing that I do your will.

If there was ever a prayer for the Church Militant, it is this prayer of St. Ignatius. If the lay Catholic would say this prayer daily, what a difference there would be in the families, parishes, universal Church.

Let me unpack this prayer and show how it is connected to dying to self.

1. Generosity. The life of a true Jesuit would be a definition of generosity-giving up one's will to God, as we saw in the Suscipe, indicates a generous spirit. And, remember, God will not be outdone in generosity.
2. Service, but as taught by God. Service in God is completely detached, objective, and never self-seeking. There is no room for the ego in true service to God.
3. Giving without cost....a parent knows this duty; a husband or wife knows this duty; many of our jobs demand such service without taking a look at the cost. How much more so for the building of the Kingdom...?
4. Fighting and not even looking at one's wounds-a good self-forgetfulness. Today, some young man told me he responded to the needs of his neighbors because he needed to do mortification for his sins--this is a healthy forgetfulness of pain and suffering when going out of one's way for another.
5. Not seeking rest--how many of us feel "entitled" to vacations, self-renewal days, and not find the task at hand refreshing because we are doing things for the wrong reasons?
6. No reward....none....just working out of sheer love for God and His creatures.
7. The will of God is the center of Jesuit dying to self--absolutely, not my will, but Thy will be done.

This little prayer could be memorized by any lay person and said during the day.

A true framework for out prayer is self-denial.

to be continued... one more on the Jesuits later...........

Choosing Lesser Gods

In my long perfection series, I noted again and again, the God purifies the imagination in the Dark Night. For most of us who go through this process, this means the total giving up of television, movies, and other forms of imaginative creations which take over the place where God wants to meet us in contemplation. I no longer listen to classical music which I love, because it distracts my imagination from God.  I get to much "into " the music. Yes, sometimes classical music and art can lead us to a powerful aesthetic experience and then, into a transcendent experience of God--this has happened to me. But, silence is a better choice for me. Beauty may be found in silence.

I hope you remember my quotation from Thomas Merton. Here is a section of those postings where I shared his great insight on this point....


.. I am certainly no judge of television, since I have never watched it. All I know is that there is a significantly general agreement, among men, whose judgement I respect, that commercial television is degraded, meretricious and absurd. Certainly it would seems that TV could become a kind of unnatural surrogate for contemplation: a completely inert subjection to vulgar images, a descent to a sub-natural passivity rather than an ascent to a supremely active passivity in understanding and love. It would seem that television should be used with extreme care and discrimination by anyone who might hope to take interior life seriously.  from Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton

I wrote about this years ago on this blog. I quoted Merton from this source:  Cistercian Studies Quarterly, "Inner Experience: Problems of the Contemplative Life (VII)", Vol 19, 1984, notes on pp. 269-270, 

God has given each human being the capacity of passive contemplation. This capacity is for God alone, for the creation of the space which He fills in the Unitive State.

Being passive before the tv fills that space with sewage and deadens the capacity for real contemplation. Worse than that, one becomes contemplatively united with whatever is on the tv through this passive contemplation, which brings one into "mystic attraction until one is spellbound in a state of complete union."
Merton states that either God or tv takes over the "will on a temporal or material level...the other...is the nadir of intellectual and emotional slavery."

Satan knows this and uses tv for his grooming of damned souls.

To move from meditation, to active contemplation, to passive contemplation, is the call of each Catholic.

Are you clogging up the very gift God has given you by passive contemplation of tv? More on this in these posts.

Figures for an Apocalypse by Thomas Merton

11 Sep 2012

Figures for an Apocalypse by Thomas Merton. Posted by Supertradmum. As a foreigner in a foreign land, I shall not be able to talk about 9-11 as I would want to do today. But, I was in Canada on 9-11. Father Z has part of ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Wow, television is the enemy of contemplation

22 Jan 2013

We only have so much time...watch the video here and the next one posted. I have read all of Thomas Merton's books many, many years ago but I have missed some of his articles. Now, I have come across a startling one ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Wise words from a Carmelite on a bus

27 Oct 2014

He also mentioned Thomas Merton, who I had just put back on the blog this morning. Synchronicity. One more point this good priest made was that we all need to think about death. Again, synchronicity considering I just wrote ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Mystic Attention-Where Is Yours Located?

27 Oct 2014

Remember what Thomas Merton said, which I have quoted here before on this blog that television is the opposite of contemplation. And that the very energies of passivity which most men use in watching television are the .

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: The Great Evil of Entertainment

21 Nov 2013

I have shared on this blog the great insight of Thomas Merton on the biggest danger of television-that the passivity which one approaches tv is the aspect, the gift of the mind and soul for passive prayer. The television takes ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Still Confusion on Prayer

10 Aug 2014

Re meditation, is there room for 'quieting' the mind, stopping the mental chatter and allowing God into the stillness? are Thomas Murton's thoughts upon meditation in Western Christianity agreeable with Catholic Christian ...

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Testing Two Perfection Series VIII Part XXXII

09 Jan 2015

... anonymous contemplatives in the city, going about their daily tasks? 9 January 2015 at 17:31 · Supertradmum said... Mary Ann, actually, the reference I know is from Thomas Merton, but Maritain may have said this as well.

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Etheldredasplace: Repeat Post-Noise is Rebellion

28 Nov 2013

Remember what Thomas Merton said, which I have quoted here before on this blog that television is the opposite of contemplation. And that the very energies of passivity which most men use in watching television are the ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Repeat Post for A Friday

29 Nov 2013

As Thomas Merton notes, we are geared to passive intake of knowledge, which happens at the contemplative stage, but if our minds are full of goo from the television, we shall never learn either meditation or contemplation.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Perfection Series VIII Part XV The Intellect and Prayer

07 Dec 2014

Remember the posts on Thomas Merton's brilliant insight into the evil of television? Without a strong intellect, one cannot properly deal with the bombardment of images, good or bad, in this hyperactive world. Even to get on ...

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Etheldredasplace: A Serious Subject and a Nod to Those ...

25 Jan 2013

Cardinal Bernadine of Chicago, Thomas Merton (in a yoga pose), Martin Luther King, or homosexual "saints" such as Mychal Judge, Mark Bingham, Harvey Milk, or such people as Oscar Romero, John Donne, We-wha the ...

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Etheldredasplace: Mouse in The Darkness

11 Nov 2014

http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Seeds-Contemplation-Directions-Paperbook/dp/0811217248/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415803141&sr=8-1&keywords=merton+contemplation. 12 November 2014 at 14:39 · Supertradmum ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: To Tyburn

11 Sep 2012

... Father Mark "Vultus Christi" Kirby's first Oblate, I have to say my Benedictine soul is envious. Please know that you're in my prayers, and I'll be asking St. Scholastica and St. Thomas More for their intercession on your behalf.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

The reason I return to these thoughts today has to do with the fact that I had a discussion with a young person last night on computer games. This young woman told me that she did not have any clue about spiritual warfare and was curious about my ability to see clearly the spiritual warfare around me. She and I had discussed this before, but this was the first time I made the connection with Thomas Merton's insight and her life choices.

As the great teachers of prayer tell us, to give up the passivity of our minds to another source rather than God means that we give up discernment, a gift given to us in confirmation, connected to the gift of knowledge. Many things can interfere with this gift but too much entertainment, and the type of entertainment can clog the imagination, stopping the use of the gift so needed in today's world.

Note the dates on the posts above. I have tried to point out the need for the clarification of the imagination for years. There must be an unclogging of the imagination which has been purposefully "clogged up". 

Silence and passivity before God must be priorities in our lives now. How can we hear God and see with His Mind if we are not cooperating with the gift of knowledge?

My young friend is not convinced. She and I have discussed this subject for a long time  But, she cannot yet make the connection I have tried to explain to her. Perhaps readers who "get" this can pray for her and those other young people she plays games with online. All these people in her group of gamers are good people, several are Catholic-- they are in their twenties and thirties, but God is calling them to a greater use of their imaginations than gaming---contemplative prayer.

How can one come into union with Christ when the imagination is full of lesser gods? 

UPDATE: Since we spoke, the young woman emailed me to say she has given up playing computer games. I am truly grateful to God for this grace. Please continue to pray for her in her pursuit of prayer. This is a huge turn-around! She will keep me posted on her efforts of prayer.