A Reminder of Purgation

Too many Catholics seek after consolations. Too many Catholics are apparitions chasers and experience chasers.

Until a person stops looking for consolations or signs and wonders, no progress will be made in the spiritual life.

I am repeating from the perfection series a long piece from Garrigou-Lagrange. I am astounded that so many Catholics still follow false and unapproved seers.

We actually do not need seers at all. Apparitions which have been approved by Rome should be the only ones we follow.

Lourdes, Fatima, Akita....and so on. My comments are in blue.

Here is an important section I am repeating:

HOW THE PASSIVE PURIFICATION OF THE SENSES IS
PRODUCED

This state is manifested by three signs which St. John of the
Cross describes as follows:

The first is this: when we find no comfort in the things of God, and none also in created things. For when God brings the soul into the dark night in order to wean it from sweetness and to purge the desire of sense, He does not allow it to find sweetness or comfort anywhere. It is then probable, in such a case, that this dryness is not the result of sins or of imperfections recently committed; for if it were, we should feel some inclination or desire for other things than those of God. . . . But still, inasmuch as this absence of pleasure in the things of heaven and of earth may proceed from bodily indisposition or a melancholy temperament, which frequently causes dissatisfaction with all things, the second test and condition become necessary.

This lack of comfort yet with persistent and consistent prayer and devotion signals passive purgation. Dryness just means that God is taking the soul away from exterior consolations, including devotions and apparitions. If one is not willing to set aside following these things, and not concentrating on Christ alone, one will never experience purgation on earth.

The second test and condition of this purgation are that the memory dwells ordinarily upon God with a painful anxiety and carefulness, the soul thinks it is not serving God, but going backwards, because it is no longer conscious of any sweetness in the things of God. . . . The true purgative aridity is accompanied in general by a painful anxiety, because the soul thinks that it is not serving God. Though this be occasionally increased by melancholy or other infirmity - so it sometimes happens ­ yet it is not for that reason without its purgative effects on the desires, because the soul is deprived of all sweetness, and its sole anxieties are referred to God. For when mere bodily indisposition is the cause, all that it does is to produce disgust and the ruin of bodily health, without the desire of serving God which belongs to the purgative aridity. In this aridity, though the sensual part of man be greatly depressed, weak and sluggish in good works, by reason of the little satisfaction they furnish, the spirit is, nevertheless, ready and strong.

One becomes aware of one's incapacity to please God without grace. One actually knows how easily it would be for one to go to hell. 

The cause of this dryness is that God is transferring to the spirit the goods and energies of the senses, which, having no natural fitness for them, become dry, parched up, and empty; for the sensual nature of man is helpless in those things which belong to the spirit simply. Thus the spirit having been tasted, the flesh becomes weak and remiss; but the spirit, having received its proper nourishment, becomes strong, more vigilant and careful than before, lest there should be any negligence in serving God. At first it is not conscious of any spiritual sweetness and delight, but rather of aridities and distaste, because of the novelty of the change. The palate accustomed to sensible sweetness looks for it still. And the spiritual palate is not prepared and purified for so delicious a taste until it shall have been for some time disposed for it in this arid and dark night. . . .(12)

Those who avoid suffering will never get to this place.

But when these aridities arise in the purgative way of the sensual appetite the spirit though at first without any sweetness, for the reasons I have given, is conscious of strength and energy to act because of the substantial nature of its interior food, which is the commencement of contemplation, dim and dry to the senses. This contemplation is in general secret, and unknown to him who is admitted into it, and with the aridity and emptiness which it produces in the senses, it makes the soul long for solitude and quiet, without the power of reflecting on anything distinctly, or even desiring to do so.
Now, if they who are in this state knew how to be quiet, . . . they would have, in this tranquillity, a most delicious sense of this interior food. This food is so delicate that, in general, it eludes our perceptions if we make any special effort to feel it; it is like the air which vanishes when we shut our hands to grasp it. For this is God's way of bringing the soul into this state; the road by which He leads it is so different from the first, that if it will do anything in its own strength, it will hinder rather than aid His work. Therefore, at this time, all that the soul can do of itself ends, as I have said, in disturbing the peace and the work of God in the spirit amid the dryness of sense.(13)

One can absolutely do nothing in this state but wait on God.

 The third sign we have for ascertaining whether this dryness be the purgation of sense, is inability to meditate and make reflections, and to excite the imagination, as before, notwithstanding all the efforts we may make; for God begins now to communicate Himself, no longer through the channel of sense, as formerly, in consecutive reflections, by which we arranged and divided our knowledge, but in pure spirit, which admits not of successive reflections, and in the act of pure contemplation (to which the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost gives rise in us).(14)

One cannot force meditation. If it comes, it comes. Reflections dry up. The imagination becomes almost emptied of images. God wants to come Himself into the person's imagination without any impediments.

In regard to this third sign, St. John of the Cross points out that this inability to meditate in a reasoned or discursive manner "does not arise out of any bodily ailment. When it arises from this, the indisposition, which is always changeable, having ceased, the powers of the soul recover their former energies and find their previous satisfactions at once. It is otherwise in the purgation of the appetite, for as soon as we enter upon this, the inability to make our meditations continually grows. It is true that this purgation at first is not continuous in some persons." (15)

Though this state is manifested by two negative characteristics (sensible aridity and great difficulty in meditating according to a reasoned manner), evidently the most important element in it is the positive side, that is, initial infused contemplation and the keen desire for God to which it gives rise in us. It must even be admitted that then sensible aridity and the difficulty in meditating come  precisely from the fact that grace takes a new, purely spiritual form, superior to the senses and to the discourse of reason, which makes use of the imagination. Here the Lord seems to take from the soul, for He deprives it of sensible consolation, but in reality He bestows a precious gift, nascent contemplation and a love that is more spirit­ual, pure, and strong. Only, we must keep in mind the saying: "The roots of knowledge are bitter and the fruits sweet"; the same must be said in a higher order of the roots and fruits of contemplation.

Some people are in the first two stages for years, some for weeks. This is the time when one is beyond mortal sin, being weaned of venial sin, and being purged of the tendencies to sin.

I am repeating much of what I have in the perfection series, but this is for the benefit of someone with whom I had a conversation last week.

St John of the Cross notes this:

 "These aridities and the emptiness of the faculties as to their former abounding, and the difficulty which good works present, bring the soul to a knowledge of its own vileness and misery." (20)
This knowledge is the effect of nascent infused contemplation, which shows that infused contemplation is in the normal way of sanctity. St. John of the Cross says: "The soul possesses and retains more truly that excellent and necessary virtue of self-knowledge, counting itself for nothing, and having no satisfaction in itself, because it sees that of itself it does and can do nothing. This diminished satisfaction with self, and the affliction it feels because it thinks that it is not serving God, God esteems more highly than all its former delights and all its good works." (21)

to be continued...see labels perfection, perfection again, perfection series II, perfection series III, perfection series IV, perfection series V: Mary, perfection series V, perfection series VI, perfection series VIII, doctors of the Church

Divine Mercy and Purgation

Today begins the greatest novena of all, to The Divine Mercy.

Please take time to say this beautiful prayer. One more penance for your Good Friday....

In all humility, I must admit I omitted this for years. How careless I was not thinking of all those who would have benefited from these prayers.

Here is the novena...print this out, if you do not have a copy.

http://www.shoj.org/docs/prayer/divine-novena/divine-mercy-novena-and-chaplet-brochure-2-per_page.pdf

I am in the passive purgative way. But, one can also enter into the active purgation, by choosing mortification and extra prayer. As I have noted in the perfection series, one cannot be useful to the Church without personal sanctity. Another state rather than humility only creates actions of egotism.

Here is St. Faustina on this.  "O my Jesus, I know that, in order to be useful to souls, one has to strive for the closest possible union with You, who are Eternal Love... I can be wholly useful to the Church by my personal sanctity, which throbs with life in the whole Church, for we all make up one organism in Jesus."

From Today's Office of Readings

I love readings on holiness, as these fall into my long theme of perfection on this blog. Today, the great Basil, notes that to be holy is not merely living the life of the virtues, but dying to self, to sin, to the world.

Again, baptism must be the most misunderstood sacrament today. Many Catholics no longer believe that an unbaptized person is any different than a baptized one. But, oh, yes. The difference is eternal.

Basil is speaking to adult converts, who are breaking away from their life of sin in baptism. The beginning of new life can happen to a newly baptized adult, child, or baby. Using the same metaphor of the race as St. Paul, St. Basil remarks that once we start the race to holiness after baptism, we must continue until we reach the finish line.

Apparently, in this race track of Basil's acquaintance, the runners had to stop at one point, turn around and run back to finish the race. This reverse of direction provides a clear symbol of one turning away from all sin and living in the new life of grace.

The symbol of the water is not only the real, efficacious cleansing of the baptized person from Original Sin, but the death to that sin and those inclinations of sin. The person is on the road to perfection. Virtues become part of the soul and intellect.

In baptism, we repeat the Death and Resurrection of Christ, Whose sacrifice on the Cross and the winning of the battle with Evil over sin and death, brings life.

Indeed, we are, at that moment of baptism, washed whiter than snow.

By one death and resurrection the world was saved from the book On the Holy Spirit by Saint Basil, bishop

When mankind was estranged from him by disobedience, God our Saviour made a plan for raising us from our fall and restoring us to friendship with himself. According to this plan Christ came in the flesh, he showed us the gospel way of life, he suffered, died on the cross, was buried and rose from the dead. He did this so that we could be saved by imitation of him, and recover our original status as sons of God by adoption.

  To attain holiness, then, we must not only pattern our lives on Christ’s by being gentle, humble and patient, we must also imitate him in his death. Taking Christ for his model, Paul said that he wanted to become like him in his death in the hope that he too would be raised from death to life.

  We imitate Christ’s death by being buried with him in baptism. If we ask what this kind of burial means and what benefit we may hope to derive from it, it means first of all making a complete break with our former way of life, and our Lord himself said that this cannot be done unless a man is born again. In other words, we have to begin a new life, and we cannot do so until our previous life has been brought to an end. When runners reach the turning point on a racecourse, they have to pause briefly before they can go back in the opposite direction. So also when we wish to reverse the direction of our lives there must be a pause, or a death, to mark the end of one life and the beginning of another.

  Our descent into hell takes place when we imitate the burial of Christ by our baptism. The bodies of the baptized are in a sense buried in the water as a symbol of their renunciation of the sins of their unregenerate nature. As the Apostle says: The circumcision you have undergone is not an operation performed by human hands, but the complete stripping away of your unregenerate nature. This is the circumcision that Christ gave us, and it is accomplished by our burial with him in baptism. Baptism cleanses the soul from the pollution of worldly thoughts and inclinations: You will wash me, says the psalmist, and I shall be whiter than snow. We receive this saving baptism only once because there was only one death and one resurrection for the salvation of the world, and baptism is its symbol.

Wow! Heresy in The Back of Church

Several weeks ago, I picked up three free booklets in the back of a church I was visiting. All three have out and out heresy and other errors in them. One is published by a diocese, one by an religious order, and one by a famous Catholic press.

Do not use these meditation books for Lent. They are corrupted by Modernist heresies and errors of judgement..

Lay people, please give up secondary texts and go straight to the Divine Office, for the sake of your souls. Blessed Paul VI told us to use the Breviary. Do it!

Some of the errors are so outrageous, they indicate a really worldly, and not God-given approach to Scripture. Some of the writings show a lack of knowledge of God and His saints.

A list of some errors:

Christ did not have the love of God but had to learn this. False. He is the Perfect Man, and God, never imperfect. This idea reflects the heresy of Arianism.

Christ "healed" Pilate's relationship with Herod. False, Pilate used Christ to make political points only.

Dorothy Day is an example of a saint. No, she was a Marxist, sadly,believing in what she called "Christian communism" which is a fallacy. She was confused as to distributism.

The confusion, maybe purposeful, of liberation theology (condemned by the Church) and the theology of liberation.

Huge emphasis on me, me, me, me and my gifts. This is all false theology, as all  spiritual gifts come through the sacraments, and from God, not nature. Natural gifts do not gain us heaven.

Outright denial of Christ's call to all of us for perfection and the misquoting of Christ....He did not say, "Be perfect, as I am", but "Be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect." And, perfection is demanded of all of us.

Perfection is NOT maturity or wholeness. This is a modern, psychological interpretation which is wrong. Maturity has to do with natural growth, NOT supernatural perfection.

The denial that there is a call to perfection, to holiness, is a sign of the weakening Church and the lack of holiness among the priests. Most of the homilies and sermons on holiness I have heard in the last five years have been at St. Kevin's Harrington Street, in Dublin, where there are at least three priests who understand the road to perfection, because they have done or are walking on this road. What a difference of perspective!

Wholeness is not a measure of sanctity and never has been. This term is "New Age" and has nothing to do with perfection.....see my over 700 posts on perfection and the Doctors of the Church series I have done on perfection.

Following the letter of the law is "meaningless" wrote one priest. Absolutely not...we are formed in obedience and following the law is the first step to holiness.

References to tv shows. WHY? To be trendy and encourage modern entertainment show a lack of holiness on the part of the priest. Why is he watching tv anyway? He should be using the time for contemplative prayer.

Stop calling Mary a teenager! That word did not exist until the 20th century as there was no such category in Western or Eastern society. Mary was a child but by adolescence was being trained to be married and do all the chores and duties of a married person. To call Mary a teen is ridiculously anti-historical and implies all the problems and errors of the modern teen.

Misunderstandings of the time and people in the Bible--to many to mention any.

And so on,,,,

All these books which are on "gifting" are false and from the Protestant denominations.

All our gifts come in Confirmation. Any natural talents must be perfected in the Dark Night when egotism is destroyed before they can be used and bear fruit. To concentrate on the self is to deny the author of all gifts, God.

Too much me will not get anyone to heaven...Do not rely on other people's interpretations, but learn to read Scripture yourself through the guidance of the Church-St. Augustine, and the other saintly Doctors of the Church are better than these so-called modern expert priests.

Perfection Series VIII: Part III Perfection and Justice

Raissa was called to be a contemplative in the world. Some of us seemed to be called to this. Such a life means that one moves from solitude to being with people easily.

Too much solitude is not a good, nor is too much time with people. A balance must be met.

Like Raissa, if I am with people too much in one day, I find the experience exhausting. The interior life demands attention and discipline, and for the beginner, like myself, much focusing.

Sometimes, I can be at Adoration for an hour, but not always.

Raissa was given the graces to be with Christ in the Eucharist for many hours in the day. But, she also needed to go out to her husband, his work, their friends, and the call of God to work in the larger world, as necessary.

Jacques notes in the Journal that she was given this ability to move back and forth between the two worlds of contemplation and activity.

He wrote this elsewhere: Contemplation… is frequently the treasure of persons hidden in the world… souls who live by it in all simplicity, without visions, without miracles, but with such a flame of love for God and neighbour that good happens all around them without noise and without agitation.

To get to the point of not experiencing agitation means that one must allow God to show one the ugliness of one's soul and live in a state of humility.  I am not there, yet.

This happens in the Dark Night, the time of no consolations, no resting in the Lord, just the awareness of one's sinfulness.

I think it is easier for an intellectual, to be honest, as one is use to study and reflection. The very active person must change the style and pace of life to meet the demands of contemplation.

For the definitions of meditation and contemplation, see the other series. I am not going to repeat those.

However, I shall use the terms which Raissa uses and which Jacques kept in the original French, as the English translation of both ideas lacks precision. But, before I mention those, I want to emphasize that Raissa knew in 1915 that God was calling all Catholics to perfection.

She writes that perfection is not merely for one's self, but for the sake of justice. She quotes the Mass:

Sursum corda. Habemus ad dominum. Dignum et justum est. Vere dignum et justum est, aequum et salutare, nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere, and this is perfection. December 10th, 1915.

Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord.....It is right to give Him thanks and praise....it is our duty and our salvation always and everywhere to give You thanks.

It is our duty to be perfect. God demand justice, which is righteousness, and this is the call of each one of us. Raissa notes that do we not all desire justice? So does God.

We are justified in God through perfection. On November 26th, 1914, Raissa writes that the horror of World War I, which has caused all people in Europe suffering,

...would make the world hateful if one did not know that in some way all is well because there is divine will and permission. There remains nothing for us but to ask more than ever for the perfecting of our souls, so that by aspiring to nothing but Heaven, they too may be worthy to be admitted there the day God wills.

From the beginning of this part of my blog, from January, 2012, this has been the reason for my writing to you, my readers... for the perfecting of your souls and my soul.

to be continued....

Perfection Series VIII:Part II Pressing Towards The Goal

When one is pressing towards the goal of perfection, one must be and is forced to be aware of the great enemy who tries to move one away from this goal. But, Raissa was doing more than just clearing the field for her own race to holiness. She was praying for Jacques who was working in the world of art, philosophy, and poetry, and meeting the ancient foe in each arena.

Both Jacques and Raissa were aware that the battles which are spiritual prove to be more intense than those which are physical.

Jacques writes in the Forward,

"Raissa was well aware of it--she wrote The Prince of this World. I see better now why she had to suffer so much. It was she who bore the heavier burden of the conflict--in the invisible depths of her prayer and her self-sacrifice. I see better too why the battle was so ruthless and so swift--the baptisms rained down, so did the blows. Conflicts of this kind can be only fought in raids carried out at full speed. And the territory gained is not gained for long. For where the prince of this world has his kingdom, the Christian cannot establish his permanent dwelling as on definitely conquered soil. On such a domain, what he should hope to see, at certain particularly propitious moments in the course of history, is the flaring up of a kind of cultural blaze--what matter is less the result that can be expected than the work of the flame itself while the blaze lasts."

He continues that founders of orders know this, but that when projects or groups fail to grow or are persecuted, what lasts are the friendships in the Lord, the small groups which carry on the kingdom of God in the world.

It has taken me a long time to understand this. As I have looked back on my life, I see times when I thought communities were going to be permanent. First, the lay community I was in seemed to be something permanent. It was not. Then, various parish groupings, including some TLM groups which no longer exist, seemed to be the way.

But, what Raissa and Jacques knew as young people was the quick response in the fighting with evil is primary. When one hesitates, ground and souls are lost.

We are all given "propitious moments" to grow in holiness and to set people on fire with the love of God. In my peripatetic life, I have seen this movement of grace too well not to finally understand that we are all missionaries in the field, wherever we are.

The great evil which has ruined the Church is the false sense of spiritual permanency some people have. They think they are saved once and for all, therefore losing the edge of spiritual warfare.

One cannot be a procrastinator in the spiritual realm of prayer and penance, reading and reflection.

One cannot put off tomorrow finding where God wants one to work, to pray, to love.

For years, I was praying to God to let me die in the vocation to which He called me. I was married, raised a child, single for a long time before those events and single for a long time afterwards.

In all those times, I was being called to study, prayer, reflection, meditation, contemplation.

Now, it is clear to me, as it was to Raissa, (only for her, she came to this very early in her life), that this movement of contemplation and activity is exactly my vocation.

To encounter God and to encounter His People create themes and variations in one's life.

To balance both demands attention, but also a knowledge of when to rest in the Lord.

Raissa was given that grace to rest in the Lord, which I shall examine in the next post.

to be continued....

Perfection Series VIII: Pressing Towards The Goal Introduction

All of us are given graces in order to cooperate with God's call to holiness.

First is the grace of conversion, which I have explained on this blog.

Then, we are given efficacious grace in order to grow in love.

Sacramental grace, which is sanctifying grace, gives us the Life of God in which we live if we are not in mortal sin.

God at this time is pouring out graces on His People. One of these graces is that of prayer, so that we can press forward on the road to purification and holiness.

In this mini-perfection series, I shall concentrate on the writings of Raissa Maritain, who should be canonized. The lay saints have trouble being canonized as it costs so much money to do so and orders are better equipped to put forward their priests. monks and nuns.

I met in 2013, the man behind the push to get Zelie and Louis Martin canonized. This is a full-time job.

Once you begin to see Raissa's reflections, you will realize how far advanced in holiness God brought her.

Of course, suffering physically had to be endured by this sensitive, highly intelligent and highly gifted woman.

In this series, I shall choose words from her Journal which add to the copious posts on perfection already on this blog, dating back to January, 2012.

She is able in her own words to explain grace to us in simple terms. That she and Jacques were personal friends with Garrioug-Lagrange is no accident.

Neither it is an accident that God led me to both Raissa and that great Dominican.

I call these events, these movements in one's life, "God-incidents."

Take advantage of the sharing of "God-incidents".

to be continued....

Perfection Series VII: Part V

Finally, let us reflect that in Holy Communion we unite ourselves not only to Jesus but also to all the members of the Mystical Body of Christ, especially to the souls most dear to Jesus and most dear to our heart. It is in Holy Communion that we realize fully the words of Jesus, “I in them ... that they may be perfect in unity” (John 17:23). The Eucharist renders us one, even among ourselves, His members, “all one in Jesus” as St. Paul says (Gal. 3:28). Holy Communion is truly all love of God and neighbor. It is the true “feast of love,” as St. Gemma Galgani said. And in this “feast of love” the soul in love can exult singing with St. John of the Cross, “Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth, mine are men, the Just are mine and sinners are mine. The Angels are mine, and also the Mother of God, all things are mine. God Himself is mine and for me because Christ is mine and all for me.”

This selection from the book in this series reminds us all that we are united to others and that our reception of Communion is not merely a private devotion, but connects us to the entire Mystical Body of Christ.

Therefore, receiving is worthily becomes an act of charity for the entire Church and not just for our own benefit. As we grow in love, so the Church grows in love as well.

All of the members of the Church, the Church Militant, the Church Suffering in purgatory, and the Church Triumphant are joined in Holy Communion.

St. Bonaventure made himself an apostle of this truth and he spoke of it in vibrant tones, “O Christian souls, do you wish to prove your true love towards your dead? Do you wish to send them the most precious help and golden key to Heaven? Receive Holy Communion often for the repose of their souls.”

For the souls in Purgatory, then, Holy Communion is the dearest personal gift which they can receive from us. Who can say how much Holy Communions are helpful in their liberation? One day St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi's dead father appeared to her and he said that one hundred and seven Holy Communions were necessary for him to be able to leave Purgatory. In fact, at the last of the one hundred and seven Holy Communions offered for him, the saint saw her father ascend into Heaven.

When Jesus is mine, the whole Church exalts, the Church in Heaven, in Purgatory and the Church on earth. Who can express the joy of the Angels and Saints at every Holy Communion devoutly received? A new current of love arrives in Paradise and it makes the blessed spirits vibrate every time that a creature unites himself to Jesus to possess Him and be possessed by Him. A Holy Communion is of much greater value than an ecstasy, a rapture or a vision. Holy Communion transports the whole of Paradise into my poor heart!

St. Philip Neri loved the Eucharist so much that, even when he was gravely ill, he received Holy Communion every day, and if Jesus was not brought to him very early in the morning he became very upset and he could not find rest in any way. “I have such a desire to receive Jesus,” he exclaimed, “that I cannot give myself peace while I wait.” The same thing took place in our own time to Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, since only obedience could make him wait until 4 or 5 a.m. to celebrate Mass. Truly, the love of God is a “Devouring Fire” (Deut. 4:24).

Perfection Series VII: Part Four

Staying with Father Manelli's book, one sees the centrality of the Eucharist for holiness.

In light of the Synod discussions, perhaps this section provides readers with some clarity.

To receive Christ in mortal sin is to commit sacrilege. The darkness of these sins take repentance and the moving away from the sources of sin, as well as Confession.

...Confession made before Holy Communion to render a soul already in the state of Sanctifying Grace more pure and more beautiful, is something precious even though not required. It is precious because it clothes the soul with a more beautiful “wedding garment” (cf. Matt. 22:12) with which it may take its place at the table of the angels. For this reason the most conscientious souls have always made frequent use (at least once a week) of the sacramental cleansing of absolution, even for venial sins. If you want great purity of soul in order to receive Jesus, no purity shines brighter than that which one obtains when he makes a good confession, where the cleansing Blood of Jesus renders the repentant soul divinely bright and beautiful. “The soul that receives the Divine Blood becomes beautiful, as being clothed in a more precious garment, and it appears so beautifully aglow that if you could see it you would be tempted to adore it,” declared St. Mary Magdalene di Pazzi.

St. Ambrose said that persons who commit this sacrilege “come into church with a few sins, and leave it burdened with many.” St. Cyril wrote something yet stronger: “They who make a sacrilegious Communion receive satan and Jesus Christ into their hearts — satan, that they may let him rule, and Jesus Christ, that they may offer Him in sacrifice as a Victim to satan.” Thus the Catechism of the Council of Trent (De Euch., v.i) declares: “As of all the sacred mysteries ... none can compare with the ... Eucharist, so likewise for no crime is there heavier punishment to be feared from God than for the unholy or irreligious use by the faithful of that which ... contains the very Author and Source of holiness.”

"There does not exist on earth a punishment which is great enough to punish it sufficiently!” , for which Jesus said to St. Bridget, sacrilege to confess oneself first before receiving Holy Communion, otherwise one commits a most grave sin of indispensible and necessary In this regard it is well to recall the teaching of the Church. Holy Communion must be received only while one is in the grace of God. Therefore, when one has committed a mortal sin, even if one has repented of it and has a great desire to receive Holy Communion, it is

For this reason St. Francis de Sales taught his spiritual children, “Go to Confession with humility and devotion ... if it is possible, every time that you go to Holy Communion, even though you do not feel in your conscience any remorse of mortal sin.”

St. Anthony Mary Claret illustrates this fact very well: “When we go to Holy Communion, all of us receive the same Lord Jesus, but not all receive the same grace nor are the same effects produced in all. This comes from our greater or lesser disposition. To explain this fact, I will take an example from nature. Consider the process of grafting, the more similar the one plant is to the other, the better the graft will succeed. Likewise, the more resemblance there is between the one that goes to Communion and Jesus, so much the better will the fruits of Holy Communion be.” The Sacrament of Confession is in fact the excellent means whereby the similarity between the soul and Jesus is restored.

To examine themselves, to repent, to accuse themselves in Confession and to ask pardon of God, and in this way, every day profit from the Sacrament of Confession, was something natural for the saints. How fortunate they were to be capable of so much! The fruits of sanctification were constant and abundant because the purity of soul with which each saint welcomed into himself Jesus, “the Wheat of the elect,” (Zach. 9:17) was like the good ground “... which brings forth fruit in patience” (Luke 8:15).

The saints applied to perfection the directive of the Holy Spirit, “Let everyone first examine himself, and then eat of that Bread and drink of that Chalice; because he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks unto his own condemnation” (1 Cor. 11:28-29).

Also, St. Alphonsus, St. Joseph Cafasso, St. John Bosco, St. Pius X, and Padre Pio of Pietrelcina went to Confession very often. And why did St. Pius X wish to lower the age for First Holy Communion to seven years, if not to allow Jesus to enter into the innocent hearts of children, which are so similar to angels. And why was Padre Pio so delighted when they brought him children five years old who were prepared for First Holy Communion?

St. Camillus de Lellis never celebrated Holy Mass without first going to Confession, because he wanted at least “to dust off” his soul. Once, at sundown, in a public square in Livorno, before taking leave of a priest of the same religious order, foreseeing that he would not have a priest to confess to on the following morning before his Mass, paused, took off his hat, made the sign of the Cross and went to Confession right there in the square to his confrere.

.... For this reason St. Hugh, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis de Sales, St. Ignatius, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Francis Borgia, St. Louis Bertrand, St. Joseph of Cupertino, St. Leonard of Port Maurice and many other saints went to Confession

“Oh, if we could only understand Who is that God Whom we receive in Holy Communion, then what purity of heart we would bring to Him!” exclaimed St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi.

.......

What is there to say about the great purity of soul with which the saints approached to receive the Bread of Angels? We know that they had a great delicacy of conscience which was truly angelic. Aware of their own misery, they tried to present themselves to Jesus “holy and immaculate,” (Eph. 1:4) repeating with the Publican, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13), and having recourse with great care to the cleansing of Confession.

Jesus Our Eucharistic Love: Perfection Series VII: Part III

I am reading the title of the book put in the heading of this post. The book, by Father Stefano M.Manelli, F.I., reviews that saints' writings on the Eucharist, the Mass, and Adoration. 

The book dovetails my new perfection series on the Incarnation and the Indwelling of the Trinity. I am borrowing this book from a friend, but it is online here.  The online version is older and the one I am reading in book form is revised slightly.

Let me share some bits which overlap with the discussion on perfection.

First of all, I want to highlight the insights of St. Gemma Galgani, a favorite of mine, who I have quoted in the long perfection series.


To the Eucharist, then, we should go. To Jesus we should turn — to Jesus, Who wishes to make Himself ours in order to make us His by rendering us “godlike”. “Jesus, Food of strong souls,” St. Gemma Galgani used to say, “strengthen me, purify me, make me godlike.” Let us receive the Eucharist with a pure and ardent heart. This is as the Saints have done. It should never be too much trouble for us to grow familiar with this unspeakable mystery. Meditation, study and reflection on the Eucharist should have an important place each day on our timetable. It will be the time of our day richest in blessings.

How daring of Gemma to tell us that we shall become godlike in receiving and adoring the Eucharist. St. Bernard tells us the same thing, that we become like God, as we were intended to be before the Fall.

Holy Communion represents the loftiest point of this exercise of love, Whose consuming flames unite the heart of a creature and Jesus. St. Gemma Galgani could exclaim in this regard, “I can no longer avoid the thought that in the wonderful scope of His Love, Jesus makes Himself perceptible and shows Himself to His lowliest creature in all the splendors of His Heart.” And what may we say about the “exercises” of the heart of St. Gemma, who desired to be a “tent of love” in which she would keep Jesus always with her? She longed to have a “little place in the ciborium” to be able to stay always with Jesus. She asked that she could become “a flaming ball afire with love” for Jesus.

Daily or even weekly Adortation can heal and even deliver souls from evil. Receiving Holy Communion should not merely be a weekly exercise without reflection, but a uniting of the soul with the Crucified Savior. 

Second, God is among us daily. Do we realize this? He dwells "in our midst" and within us if we remain in sanctifying grace.

“The faith of the Church,” Pope Pius XII teaches us, “is this: That one and identical is the Word of God and the Son of Mary Who suffered on the Cross, Who is present in the Eucharist, and Who rules in Heaven.”

Let us ask the question: What is the Eucharist? It is God among us. It is the Lord Jesus present in the tabernacles of our churches with His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. It is Jesus veiled under the appearance of bread, but really and physically present in the consecrated Host, so that He dwells in our midst, works within us and for us, and is at our disposal. The Eucharistic Jesus is the true Emmanuel, the “God with us.” (Matt. 1:23)

Third, the Mass sustains the world, which would have been destroyed by sin if God's Sacrifice was not daily offered at the altar.

Indeed, inasmuch as it renews the Sacrifice of Jesus' Passion and Death, the Holy Mass, even taken alone, is great enough to restrain divine justice. St. Teresa of Jesus said to her daughters, “Without the Holy Mass, what would become of us? All here below would perish, because that alone can hold back God's arm.” Without it the Church certainly would not last and the world would become hopelessly lost. “It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do so without the Holy Mass,” said Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. He was following St. Leonard of Port Maurice who had said, “I believe that if there were no Mass, the world would by now have sunk into the abyss under the weight of its wickedness. The Mass is the powerful support which sustains it.”

Most Catholics forget or do not know that the Mass is the Sacrifice at Calvary, occurring over and over and over daily, in most places in the world.

Fourth, for most of us, unless we live miles away from a daily Mass as I did in Upper State NY, the Mass is overlooked as something worthy of making an effort to attend.

We ought to prefer Holy Mass all the more to mere amusements that waste our time and bring no profit to our soul. St. Louis IX, King of France, attended several Masses every day. A minister of the government complained, remarking that he could devote that time to the affairs of the kingdom. The saintly king remarked, “If I spent twice the time in amusements, like hunting, no one would have any objection.”

Let us be generous and willingly make sacrifices so as not to lose so great a good. 

The graces given at Mass and in Adoration cannot be fully explained. God works on the heart, the mind, and the soul, bringing a person to perfection in and with and through the Eucharist...

to be continued.

Overwhelmed by the Incarnation-Perfection Series VII: I

I am surrounded by people in the cities who do not believe in the Incarnation. They do not believe that the Second Son of the Blessed Trinity became Man. They do not believe in the Trinity.

The thought of the Incarnation overwhelms me, shapes my life, informs my prayers, and gives me energy.

The Incarnated Christ is not on the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is Love Personified.

No other loves in this world can compare with the Love Who Is a Person.

Those of us who are baptized and in sanctifying grace have the Indwelling of of the Blessed Trinity.

I shall pick this apart a bit, but the real lessons are in the experience of Christ Himself, through the Church, the sacraments and Adoration. As usual, my comments are in blue.

REALITY—A Synthesis Of Thomistic Thought

by Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O. P.

CH 21: THE INDWELLING OF THE BLESSED TRINITY

We cannot here treat of the missions of the divine persons. [578] But we must look briefly at Thomistic doctrine concerning the mode of the Trinity's indwelling in the souls of the just.
This doctrine derives from the words of our Savior: [579] "If anyone love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him." What will come? Not merely created effects, sanctifying grace, infused virtues, the seven gifts, but the divine persons themselves, the Father and the Son, from whom the Holy Spirit is never separated. Besides, the Holy Spirit was explicitly promised by our Lord and was sent visibly on Pentecost. [580] This special presence of the Trinity in the just differs notably from the presence of God as preserving cause of all creatures.
We must note three different explanations of this indwelling: that of Vasquez, that of Suarez, and that of St. Thomas.
Vasquez reduces all real indwelling of God in us to the general presence of immensity, by which God is present in all things which He preserves in existence. As known and loved, God is in no way really present in the just man. He is there only as represented, like a loved friend who is absent. This view allows very little to the special presence of God in the just.

OK, that is clear. All living creatures would die if it were not for the general Presence of God. He keeps us in this life. Even those who do not believe in God as kept alive, in His presence of immensity. But,the Indwelling of the Trinity is more than this.

Suarez, on the contrary, maintains that God, even if He were not present by immensity, would still, by the charity which unites men to Him, be really and substantially present in the just. This opinion has to face a very grave objection, which runs thus: When we love the humanity of our Lord and Savior, or the Blessed Virgin, it does not follow that they are really present in our souls. Charity certainly is an affective union and creates a desire for real union, but cannot itself constitute that union.

Love alone does not bring about this Indwelling, as tempting of an idea that is...as much as I like Suarez, he misses a main point here. Suarez also denies the need for the presence of immensity. For such a fantastic scholar, this seems a huge oversight in his thinking. There are levels of presence.

Here again the thought of St. Thomas [581] dominates two opposed views, one of Vasquez, the other of Suarez.
According to the Angelic Doctor, [582] the special presence of the Trinity in the just presupposes the general presence of immensity. This is against Suarez. But again (and this is what Vasquez did not see): God, by sanctifying grace, by infused virtues, by the seven gifts, becomes really present in a new and higher manner, as object experimentally knowable, which the just soul can enjoy, which it at times knows actually. God is not like a loved friend who is absent, but He is really present.
The saint [583] assigns the reason. The soul in the state of grace, he says, has God as its supernatural object of knowledge and of love and with that object the power of enjoying God.
To say truly that the divine persons dwell in us, we must be able to know them, not in abstract fashion, like distant friends, but in a manner quasi-experimental, with the vibrancy of infused charity, which gives a connatural intimacy with the inner life of God. [584] It is the very characteristic of experimental knowledge that it terminates in an object really present.

Thomas varies from Suarez in that infused love, or charity, given to the soul in the state of grace, allows for the real experience of the Trinity. This is real knowledge, not merely based on faith or hope, but on infused love. When this love is perfected, one is in the Unitive State.

But this experimental knowledge need not always be actual. Thus the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity lasts even during sleep. But as long as, by grace, virtue, and gifts, this indwelling continues, this experimental knowledge will, from time to time, become actual, when God makes Himself known to us as the soul of our soul, the life of our life. "You have received," says St. Paul, "the spirit of adoption wherein we cry Abba, Father. It is the Spirit Himself who testifies that we are children of God." [585].

When I am overwhelmed by the experience of the Incarnated Christ, this experience is real in the emotions, soul, heart and mind. But, even if I am walking in the Dark Night, the Indwelling of the Trinity is with me, although I perceive this Presence imperfectly.

Commenting on this passage in Romans, St. Thomas speaks thus: The Holy Spirit gives this testimony, by the filial love He produces in us. And elsewhere [586] he traces this experimental knowledge to the gift of wisdom which clarifies living faith. And in another passage [587] he is still more explicit. Not merely any kind of knowledge, he says, is in question when we speak of the mission and indwelling of a divine person. It must be a mode of knowledge coming from a gift appropriated to that person, a gift by which we are conjoined to God. That gift, when the Holy Spirit is given, is love, and therefore the knowledge is quasi-experimental.
Here lies the meaning of our Savior's words: [588] "The Spirit of truth, whom the Father will send in My name, will be in you, and will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind whatsoever I have said to you."

Purification occurs so that one may experience the fullness of this Love to which each one of us is called in a different manner or even depth, according to God's Will. But, experience this we shall in the Illuminative and Unitive States.

To be continued....

Perfection Series VI: XIII Reparation And Mary Again

The Pope Emeritus writes about Mary and the Presentation of Christ in his book  Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives. Simeon told Mary she would suffer-her heart would be pierced. Such are the paintings of the Sorrowful Mother we see throughout the centuries.

The Pope Emeritus notes that Mary had true "com-passion" with her Son. And, that is "quite unsentimentally assuming the suffering of other's as one's own."

This is another way to describe Reparation. Now, Mary is then the "Co-Redemptorix" as some theologians have explained through this compassion.

If one is called to Reparation, one takes on a little bit of this compassion for others and suffers with that person in order for them to reach heaven.

Those who are in difficult relationships understand this concept.

To be continued...

Feast Day of St. Margaret Mary-Perfection Series VI:IX Reparation

One forgets how young St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was when she died-43-and what sufferings she endured at home before she entered the convent, and afterwards.

Her life would not have been particularly noticed by anyone, as she lived in a family who lost wealth, lived in poverty, gained back some status, and as she was not particularly excellent about her chores in the convent.

Like St. Faustina, St. Margaret seems "ordinary" to the point of being overlooked or suspected.

These are the types of saints God chooses so that His Glory shines forth from such clay vessels. As the Sixth Perfection Series is on Reparation, today's feast is timely.

St. Margaret Mary did make reparation while on earth, suffering not only from her companions in the convent, but from the revelations from Christ, Who showed her His loving Heart, wounded by ungrateful humanity.

Today is Thursday, and St. Margaret Mary asked the Church to sit with Jesus in the Agony in the Garden on this day. How appropriate that my other mini-series is on Christ's suffering in Gethsemane.

When I was growing up in the pre-Vatican II, pre-NO Church, Holy Hours were common. Men coming from work could pop into churches for this devotion.

Even in Malta, it is hard to find Adoration unless one travels. (I do not count the ugly Millennium Chapel with Jesus in the lava lamp--see
http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/01/do-you-like-this-monstrance.html)

Why there is not more public Adoration, I do not know.

Is there any in Walshingham now, regularly? That is what I wanted to set up.

Reparation for ignoring Christ needs to be made now. His Sacred Heart bleeds still. Reparation may be done by us little ones of God.

Perfection Series VI: VIII Reparation--The Reparatress and The Synod

One totally generous person shows us the way to practice reparation and that is Mary, Our Mother.

Pope Pius XI labels her the "reparatress". Can we not follow her, begging her for the graces necessary to suffer for others?

I challenge my readers to choose one of the most recalcitrant bishops or cardinal in the synod today and make reparation for him.

Do it!

But the just shall be justified and shall be sanctified still (Cf.Apoc. xxii. 11) and they will devote themselves wholly and with new ardor to the service of their King, when they see Him contemned and attacked and assailed with so many and such great insults, but more than all will they burn with zeal for the eternal salvation of souls when they have pondered on the complaint of the Divine Victim: "What profit is there in my blood?" (Psalm xxix, 10), and likewise on the joy that will be felt by the same Most Sacred Heart of Jesus "upon one sinner doing penance" (Luke xv, 10). And this indeed we more especially and vehemently desire and confidently expect, that the just and merciful God who would have spared Sodom for the sake of ten just men, will much more be ready to spare the whole race of men, when He is moved by the humble petitions and happily appeased by the prayers of the community of the faithful praying together in union with Christ their Mediator and Head, in the name of all. And now lastly may the most benign Virgin Mother of God smile on this purpose and on these desires of ours; for since she brought forth for us Jesus our Redeemer, and nourished Him, and offered Him as a victim by the Cross, by her mystic union with Christ and His very special grace she likewise became and is piously called a reparatress. Trusting in her intercession with Christ, who whereas He is the "one mediator of God and men" (1Timothy ii, 5), chose to make His Mother the advocate of sinners, and the minister and mediatress of grace, as an earnest of heavenly gifts and as a token of Our paternal affection we most lovingly impart the Apostolic Blessing to you, Venerable Brethren, and to all the flock committed to your care.

Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, on the eighth day of May, 1928, in the seventh year of Our Pontificate.

---

Chose that priest, bishop or cardinal who seems farthest away from the truth of the sanctity of marriage and do reparation for him starting today. Here is the prayer given to us by Pope Pius XI. Ask, no beg, the Reparatress to intercede now, today for what is happening in Rome.

Fast, pray, mortify yourself. We are responsible for the Church as well as those in Rome.

Prayer of Reparation

O sweetest Jesus, whose overflowing charity towards men is most ungratefully repaid by such great forgetfulness, neglect and contempt, see, prostrate before Thy altars, we strive by special honor to make amends for the wicked coldness of men and the contumely with which Thy most loving Heart is everywhere treated.
At the same time, mindful of the fact that we too have sometimes not been free from unworthiness, and moved therefore with most vehement sorrow, in the first place we implore Thy mercy on us, being prepared by voluntary expiation to make amends for the sins we have ourselves committed, and also for the sins of those who wander far from the way of salvation, whether because, being obstinate in their unbelief, they refuse to follow Thee as their shepherd and leader, or because, spurning the promises of their Baptism, they have cast off the most sweet yoke of Thy law. We now endeavor to expiate all these lamentable crimes together, and it is also our purpose to make amends for each one of them severally: for the want of modesty in life and dress, for impurities, for so many snares set for the minds of the innocent, for the violation of feast days, for the horrid blasphemies against Thee and Thy saints, for the insults offered to Thy Vicar and to the priestly order, for the neglect of the Sacrament of Divine love or its profanation by horrible sacrileges, and lastly for the public sins of nations which resist the rights and the teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast instituted. Would that we could wash away these crimes with our own blood! And now, to make amends for the outrage offered to the Divine honor, we offer to Thee the same satisfaction which Thou didst once offer to Thy Father on the Cross and which Thou dost continually renew on our altars, we offer this conjoined with the expiations of the Virgin Mother and of all the Saints, and of all pious Christians, promising from our heart that so far as in us lies, with the help of Thy grace, we will make amends for our own past sins, and for the sins of others, and for the neglect of Thy boundless love, by firm faith, by a pure way of life, and by a perfect observance of the Gospel law, especially that of charity; we will also strive with all our strength to prevent injuries being offered to Thee, and gather as many as we can to become Thy followers. Receive, we beseech Thee, O most benign Jesus, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Reparatress, the voluntary homage of this expiation, and vouchsafe, by that great gift of final perseverance, to keep us most faithful until death in our duty and in Thy service, so that at length we may all come to that fatherland, where Thou with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest God for ever and ever. Amen.

Perfection Series VI:VII Reparation

Too many people tell me they are too busy to pray, much less do penance.

As Fulton J. Sheen once said, if you are too busy to pray, you are too busy.

One must come to the realization that certain other activities and interests must be sacrificed in order to make time for reparation. Here is Pope Pius XI on this point.

19. And for this reason also there have been established many religious families of men and women whose purpose it is by earnest service, both by day and by night, in some manner to fulfill the office of the Angel consoling Jesus in the garden; hence come certain associations of pious men, approved by the Apostolic See and enriched with indulgences, who take upon themselves this same duty of making expiation, a duty which is to be fulfilled by fitting exercises of devotion and of the virtues; hence lastly, to omit other things, come the devotions and solemn demonstrations for the purpose of making reparation to the offended Divine honor, which are inaugurated everywhere, not only by pious members of the faithful, but by parishes, dioceses and cities.

Do Catholics understand the real reason for the celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart? Do you want the current crisis in the Church to abate? Honor the Sacred Heart. Do you want changes in your governments? Honor the Sacred Heart. Do you want conversions among the lapsed Catholics in your own families? Honor the Sacred Heart.

20. These things being so, Venerable Brethren, just as the rite of consecration, starting from humble beginnings, and afterwards more widely propagated, was at length crowned with success by Our confirmation; so in like manner, we earnestly desire that this custom of expiation or pious reparation, long since devoutly introduced and devoutly propagated, may also be more firmly sanctioned by Our Apostolic authority and more solemnly celebrated by the whole Catholic name. Wherefore, we decree and command that every year on the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, - which feast indeed on this occasion we have ordered to be raised to the degree of a double of the first class with an octave - in all churches throughout the whole world, the same expiatory prayer or protestation as it is called, to Our most loving Savior, set forth in the same words according to the copy subjoined to this letter shall be solemnly recited, so that all our faults may be washed away with tears, and reparation may be made for the violated rights of Christ the supreme King and Our most loving Lord.

One of the problems is that people, even Catholics, do not understand just how transcendent God is. We have, as a society, as Western cultures, "dumbed-down God". One of the messages of Fatima, especially seen in the life of Blessed Jacinta, is the need for suffering in order for souls to be saved.

This young holy girl puts us to shame with her courage and determination to follow Mary's call for reparation.

21. There is surely no reason for doubting, Venerable Brethren, that from this devotion piously established and commanded to the whole Church, many excellent benefits will flow forth not only to individual men but also to society, sacred, civil, and domestic, seeing that our Redeemer Himself promised to Margaret Mary that "all those who rendered this honor to His Heart would be endowed with an abundance of heavenly graces." Sinners indeed, looking on Him whom they pierced (John xix, 37), moved by the sighs and tears of the whole Church, by grieving for the injuries offered to the supreme King, will return to the heart (Isaias xlvi, 8), lest perchance being hardened in their faults, when they see Him whom they pierced "coming in the clouds of heaven" (Matth. xxvi, 64), too late and in vain they shall bewail themselves because of Him 
(Cf. Apoc. i, 7). 

Absolutely, now is the time for reparation to the Sacred Heart. The time for wasting opportunities must be seen as over. The Pope here sensed an urgency. Are not these times more urgent?

to be continued...

Perfection Series VI: VI Reparation

In the encyclical we have been following in this mini-series on reparation, the Pope calls on all to remember the devotion to the Sacred Heart, started through the revelations given to St. Margaret Mary.

The two things Christ called for as activities for reparation are Communion of Reparation and attending Holy Hour.

Sadly, Holy Hour devotions slipped into oblivion, although many parishes now have hours of Adoration. There are still too few parishes or chapels with Adoration.

The Communion of Reparation is something each person can adopt. Offering one's merits in Communion either for an individual person or the Church in general, especially in these perilous times, seems appropriate, and necessary.

I suggest praying as to whether you are called to make reparation for someone's sins other than your own.

An entire nation may need people to be involved in making reparation for such crimes as abortion and ssm.

Consider this encyclical. Consider the call to reparation.

Perfection Series VI: V Reparation

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S.Lewis is a book I taught for years at several colleges and universities, as well as in home schooling situations.

I have been obsessed with this story and love it, considering it Lewis' masterpiece.

I am not going into all the details of the plot, but will refer merely to two of the main characters, Psyche and Orual. By the way, I have written on this book before on this blog way back before 2009 and some of my older readers may remember my comments.

For me, the most important two elements of the novel are these: first, that Pysche must do penance for disobedience, for not trusting in Cupid, and for giving in to manipulation and lies.

Second, Psyche's reparation made it possible for Orual to have an excellent life, but as she is so full of pride, denial and ingratitude, she must be brought to see her sins and that fact that Pysche did all the work of reparation so that Orual could be successful and loved.

Such is reparation in Christian terms applied to the ancient myth. Perhaps my constant returning to this book both in my private reading and in teaching (my students loved this book on the whole, btw) is connected to my now realized call to do reparation for whomever or whatever God calls me.

Orual thought her love for Pysche was pure, but it was not. However, Psyche's love for Orual was pure. She got nothing in return for her labors until the very end of the journey.

That is the point. Reparative love must be purified, completely unselfish love.

That Psyche loved Orual purely allowed her to complete the tasks, to do the reparation necessary to save Orual.

In the end, Orual realizes that she, although ugly from birth physically, is truly beautiful to the gods, as Psyche is beautiful.

Of course, allegorically, we know that Psyche is the soul of Orual.

Love and reparation create something new in a soul. This newness may be a portal, and opening wherein grace can flow, heal, deliver.

Obviously, Christ has done the work, but He calls us in that mysterious manner to share in His sufferings for a particular person or group or situation.

When one becomes joined to Christ in suffering, only love transcends the pain, and it does, bringing a peace, and, as St. Therese the Little Flower writes, "unfelt joy".

to be continued...

Perfection Series VI:lV Reparation

Thanks to wikicommons

This encyclical could have been written today, as I mentioned before. Does this section not sound like a commentary of what is happening in both Rome and across the West?

What I have commented on daily is summarized in this section. Is there not reason for us to do reparation now, at this time, more than ever?


16. But it is yet more to be lamented, Venerable Brethren, that among the faithful themselves, washed in Baptism with the blood of the immaculate Lamb, and enriched with grace, there are found so many men of every class, who laboring under an incredible ignorance of Divine things and infected with false doctrines, far from their Father's home, lead a life involved in vices, a life which is not brightened by the light of true faith, nor gladdened by the hope of future beatitude, nor refreshed and cherished by the fire of charity; so that they truly seem to sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Moreover, among the faithful there is a greatly increasing carelessness of ecclesiastical discipline, and of those ancient institutions on which all Christian life rests, by which domestic society is governed, and the sanctity of marriage is safeguarded; the education of children is altogether neglected, or else it is depraved by too indulgent blandishments, and the Church is even robbed of the power of giving the young a Christian education; there is a sad forgetfulness of Christian modesty especially in the life and the dress of women; there is an unbridled cupidity of transitory things, a want of moderation in civic affairs, an unbounded ambition of popular favor, a depreciation of legitimate authority, and lastly a contempt for the word of God, whereby faith itself is injured, or is brought into proximate peril.

17. But all these evils as it were culminate in the cowardice and the sloth of those who, after the manner of the sleeping and fleeing disciples, wavering in their faith, miserably forsake Christ when He is oppressed by anguish or surrounded by the satellites of Satan, and in the perfidy of those others who following the example of the traitor Judas, either partake of the holy table rashly and sacrilegiously, or go over to the camp of the enemy. And thus, even against our will, the thought rises in the mind that now those days draw near of which Our Lord prophesied: "And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold" (Matth. xxiv, 12).

Today I was treated rudely by more than one person in the "service industry". Charity has grown cold.

More than ever, we each must consider doing penance, mortification, more prayer.

18. Now, whosoever of the faithful have piously pondered on all these things must need be inflamed with the charity of Christ in His agony and make a more vehement endeavor to expiate their own faults and those of others, to repair the honor of Christ, and to promote the eternal salvation of souls. And indeed that saying of the Apostle: "Where sin abounded, grace did more abound" (Romans v, 20) may be used in a manner to describe this present age; for while the wickedness of men has been greatly increased, at the same time, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, a marvelous increase has been made in the number of the faithful of both sexes who with eager mind endeavor to make satisfaction for the many injuries offered to the Divine Heart, nay more they do not hesitate to offer themselves to Christ as victims. 

Joining groups like the Auxilium Christianorum or the Society of the Most Sorrowful Mother seems timely.

For indeed if any one will lovingly dwell on those things of which we have been speaking, and will have them deeply fixed in his mind, it cannot be but he will shrink with horror from all sin as from the greatest evil, and more than this he will yield himself wholly to the will of God, and will strive to repair the injured honor of the Divine Majesty, as well by constantly praying, as by voluntary mortifications, by patiently bearing the afflictions that befall him, and lastly by spending his whole life in this exercise of expiation.

Are there generous souls out there willing to take on the challenge of this encyclical?

to be continued...