Friday, 3 July 2015
Denial
They only want to think happy thoughts. Of course, denial is one stage of trauma. Having been through traumas, I recognize the stages. I expected this decision and saw it coming many years ago, so I am not traumatized, merely saddened and righteously angry.
The stages of trauma are:
Emotional and psychological symptoms of trauma:
Shock, denial, or disbelief
Anger, irritability, mood swings
Guilt, shame, self-blame
Feeling sad or hopeless
Confusion, difficulty concentrating
Anxiety and fear
Withdrawing from others
Feeling disconnected or numb
Physical symptoms of trauma:
Insomnia or nightmares
Being startled easily
Racing heartbeat
Aches and pains
Fatigue
Difficulty concentrating
Edginess and agitation
Muscle tension
Many good Catholics have had trouble sleeping this week. Many are still in shock, denial and disbelief. Some are anxious and fearful, Some are agitated.
God is in charge, always. If we truly believe in Providence, we believe that God has allowed sin to triumph, temporarily in order to bring the faithful to perfection, and to punish the evil.
Purification of the Church and this land seems inevitable. Those who are in denial need to move into the various stages and come into reality.
America, like Ireland, like Britain, like Spain, will never be the same again. Christianity will triumph in the end, but I most likely will not see any earthly triumph.
Get ready. Become holy. Pray for me to keep blogging.
Still, nothing from the pulpits where I have been going to Mass. Nothing. I have felt abandoned by the clergy and I am angry that many of the laity in this area have been left in confusion, when clarity could have come from the pulpits.
God, forgive us and forgive these lax priests. As one of my friends said yesterday, a bit sarcastically, "Why should they hunger and thirst after righteousness, or endure persecution for His Name's sake?"
I shall continue to pray for all priests, bishops, cardinals, and seminarians.
God, forgive us and forgive these lax priests. As one of my friends said yesterday, a bit sarcastically, "Why should they hunger and thirst after righteousness, or endure persecution for His Name's sake?"
I shall continue to pray for all priests, bishops, cardinals, and seminarians.
Repeat Posts on Why Persecution and Stages Of
Here are some of my key posts on persecution. Notice the dates.
Some listened. Some did not.
Tuesday, 18 November 2014
Why Persecution? Why Tribulation?
Hebrews 3:7-8Douay-Rheims
7 Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith: To day if you shall hear his voice,
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation; in the day of temptation in the desert,
Here is one post repeated here.
Monday, 19 November 2012
What to do after losing a war
Many of us are sitting back and wondering where the world will be moving politically now that America has lost the culture? war. We cannot be in cloud-cuckoo land, pretending that this week is the same as a week last month. We cannot pretend that a great day of the Church, a new Christendom, will bless the earth with a homogenous vision of God, His rule, good and bad, brotherly and sisterly love.
Sorry, the moment has passed. Those of us who have been praying for a long time or involved in the work of the Church for a long time have seen this day coming. We knew in the 1970s, after Roe v. Wade, that the Christian community would have to fight, or be persecuted. We can fight, but the majority is against us.
Some people do not believe this. I met many guests and religious in the past two months who believe in the resurrection of the dead Western Civilization and a time of Christ's reign on earth which will bring world peace. I do not know which Bible these people read or why they are not hearing the Holy Spirit.
That I try, gently, and maybe not so gently, to speak the truth is that there is not much time.
There are NO safe havens. One may be able to withstand evil in an excellent Catholic community for awhile, but persecution will come. First, the established Church will be more openly attacked, then priests, nuns, sisters and the laity.
The Church Triumphant is in Heaven.
The emphasis on this blog, therefore, will be on the interior person and personal holiness. Why? If we are facing martyrdom, or sacrifices beyond our imagination, we must be prepared spiritually. One cannot exhibit virtue without living in the Presence of God, of Love Himself, in the days to come.
There is no time frame on this coming persecution. Catholics in England saw incremental, increasingly harsh times and some were martyred. It became illegal to leave the country in order to practice Catholicism elsewhere and avoid fines or imprisonment.
Where are the Catholic havens now? Not Ireland, where I am sitting, looking out over the downtown of Dublin, witnessing the fall of the one of the most faithful countries in the world, now racked with gross materialism, hatred for the Church and selfishness. The winter is already more severe than last year, as if the gods of nature, metaphorically, of course, were grieving at the loss of innocence on this once holy isle.
Sorry, the moment has passed. Those of us who have been praying for a long time or involved in the work of the Church for a long time have seen this day coming. We knew in the 1970s, after Roe v. Wade, that the Christian community would have to fight, or be persecuted. We can fight, but the majority is against us.
Some people do not believe this. I met many guests and religious in the past two months who believe in the resurrection of the dead Western Civilization and a time of Christ's reign on earth which will bring world peace. I do not know which Bible these people read or why they are not hearing the Holy Spirit.
That I try, gently, and maybe not so gently, to speak the truth is that there is not much time.
There are NO safe havens. One may be able to withstand evil in an excellent Catholic community for awhile, but persecution will come. First, the established Church will be more openly attacked, then priests, nuns, sisters and the laity.
The Church Triumphant is in Heaven.
The emphasis on this blog, therefore, will be on the interior person and personal holiness. Why? If we are facing martyrdom, or sacrifices beyond our imagination, we must be prepared spiritually. One cannot exhibit virtue without living in the Presence of God, of Love Himself, in the days to come.
There is no time frame on this coming persecution. Catholics in England saw incremental, increasingly harsh times and some were martyred. It became illegal to leave the country in order to practice Catholicism elsewhere and avoid fines or imprisonment.
Where are the Catholic havens now? Not Ireland, where I am sitting, looking out over the downtown of Dublin, witnessing the fall of the one of the most faithful countries in the world, now racked with gross materialism, hatred for the Church and selfishness. The winter is already more severe than last year, as if the gods of nature, metaphorically, of course, were grieving at the loss of innocence on this once holy isle.
http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-to-do-after-losing-war.html
I have also written that persecution is for the purification of the elect, which may be clarified by reading the long series on Predestination.
But, one thing is clear. Persecution creates heroes and this world is in great need of heroes.
Saints are heroes.
Our children need heroes, need models of grace and courage.
Adults need heroes to spur them on and continue the fight against evil.
We are not living in a time of heroes, but a time which glorifies anti-heroes. This was clear even in the depiction of Aragorn in LOTR movies, when Jackson missed the chance to really explore and understand the ideal of kingship, which Tolkien understood and revealed in his books.
Persecution forces the mediocre to make decisions. No one can be an existentialist in a time of tribulation. Persecution forces the good to become excellent, as the good are made pure of heart, mind and soul in persecution.
Persecution clarifies what is heresy and what is truth in the Church. We are seeing that already, clearly.
Persecution causes men and women to convert, to see the truth and choose it. People more easily convert when they can see from what they are turning and what they are embracing.
However, there is something which escapes most Catholics, a small truth which can change history. And, it is this. If we cooperated with God daily in being purified, we would not need a time of tribulation.
Persecution creates saints, but so do daily decisions for Christ and for his Church. If Catholics got up early or went to Mass after work daily, if Catholics went to Confession regularly and attended Adoration whenever it was offered, if Catholics stood up for the truth in the market-place, making the reign of Christ real in the world, if Catholics took on mortification and penance, we would not need persecution.
Christ desires as many people as possible to go to heaven. Persecution allows evil to be seen clearly, helping some convert, and the good to rise to the level of perfection.
But, if we prayed and cooperated with grace now, daily, these times will be shortened.
The times of purification have begun. For some, persecution is part of daily life.
Pray to become a hero now, to become a saint now.
Then, one can evangelize others with real authority and power.
Then, the time of persecution could be lessened.
Tuesday, 7 October 2014
Persecution Review
Sunday, 6 October 2013
Last Stages of Persecution
 |
| Thanks to wiki for chart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Orthodox_Church |
For those who have been following my blog, remember all the many, many posts on persecution and the stages.
I have re-posted these many times and here are some of the links again. If you do not see that Catholics are approaching a time of serious persecution, especially in the States, it is because you do not want to see the trend.
10 Jul 2013
A sign of the stages of persecution. Posted by Supertradmum. Last year I said we were at the end of the fourth out of five steps of persecution. Here is another indication, just in case some readers do not believe this.
06 Apr 2013
... persecution. Posted by Supertradmum. Last year I said we were at the end of the fourth out of five steps of persecution. Here is another indication, just in case some readers do not believe this.
25 Jun 2013
A sign of the stages of persecution. Posted by Supertradmum. Last year I said we were at the end of the fourth out of five steps of persecution. Here is another indication, just in case some readers do not believe this.
01 Feb 2013
As I am the one who has to rewrite my own ideas, I am trying to be patient with myself. Stages one, two and three in the United States and Europe are long gone. The beginnings of stage one are in the educational systems of ...
01 Feb 2013
I have written this post before...and it was accidentally deleted with many others. Stages four and five of persecution are clear. We are in stage four in the States and entering into it is Great Britain. Stage Four is criminalization.
20 Sep 2013
There have been since World War II, psychologists and sociologists who have defined stages of persecution for religions. The first is stigmatizing the targeted group. This has already happened in the United States under the ...
01 Feb 2013
Stage Two is the vilification of Catholics. Again, this happened years ago in America, with the Ku klux Klan and Masons printing anti-Catholic material, as well as other Protestant groups, such as the old "Chick" cartoon ...
22 Feb 2013
The last stage of persecution witnesses laws directly aimed at the target group, making their activities unlawful and forcing them into poverty and fines if they do not cooperate. This happened here 500 years ago and the ...
23 Jul 2013
Many younger Catholics understand we are headed for real persecution. Those who do not can read my previous posts on the stages of such persecution. We are in the beginning of the last stage. But, many Catholics think ...
05 Dec 2012
Since last January, I have highlighted the five stages of persecution now and then. You can use the search tab or click on the " persecution" tag at the bottom of this and other posts. The tags bring up many articles. Yesterday ...
06 Feb 2013
The perfection series which I started a year ago was an effort to share what I know about the stages and to help you to see how we must be in the illuminative stage at least to face persecution without crumpling. Of course, God ...
Prayer for the Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle
Collect: Grant, almighty God, that we may glory in the Feast of the blessed Apostle Thomas, so that we may always be sustained by his intercession and, believing, may have life in the name of Jesus Christ your Son, whom Thomas acknowledged as the Lord. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Let us pray today for all who are doubting the goodness of the Lord in these hard times.
Let us pray today for all who are doubting the goodness of the Lord in these hard times.
Continuing with The Soul of The Apostolate
I suggest to my readers, as I did before, to get and read this book.
God wants us to love our neighbor as ourselves, but never more than ourselves, that is, never to such an extent that we harm our own souls. And in practice, this is as much as if He demanded that we take more care of our own soul than of those others, since our zeal must be regulated by charity, and “Prima sibi charitas”4″ is an axiom of theology. “I love Jesus Christ,” said St. Alphonsus Liguori, ” and that is why I am on fire with the desire to give Him souls, first of all my own, and then an incalculable number of others.” This is a practical application of St. Bernard’s Tuus esto ubique” and that other principle of the holy abbot of Clairvaux: “No man is truly wise, who is not wise for himself.” 45 St. Bernard, who was himself a rare miracle of apostolic zeal, followed this rule. Geoffrey of Auxerre, his secretary, depicts him as: Tot us primum sibi et sic totus omnibus. “He belonged, first of all, entirely to himself, and thus he belonged entirely to all men.”
When I lose my peace, it is because I have not prayed intently. When I am impatient, it is because I have not prayed enough. I have to rely entirely on God for all goodness which is in me.
God has given me the grace to recognize that the big obstacle to my acquiring a peaceful and fruitful interior life is my natural activity, and my tendency to be carried away by my work. And I have recognized, besides, that this lack of interior life is the source of all my faults, all my troubles, my dryness, my fits of disgust, and my bad health.
Too much activity causes a whirlwind of chaos in families. Jesus is our example--30 years of silence, 40 days of retreat, and then, and only then, three years of active ministry.
Let us consider the mortal life of Our Lord, a perfect realization of the divine plan. Thirty years of recollection and solitude, then forty days of retreat and penance are the prelude to His brief evangelical career. How often, too, during His apostolic journeys, we see Him retiring to the mountains or the desert to pray: “He retired into the desert and prayed,” or passing the night in prayer: “He passed the whole night in the prayer of God.”
More later....
God wants us to love our neighbor as ourselves, but never more than ourselves, that is, never to such an extent that we harm our own souls. And in practice, this is as much as if He demanded that we take more care of our own soul than of those others, since our zeal must be regulated by charity, and “Prima sibi charitas”4″ is an axiom of theology. “I love Jesus Christ,” said St. Alphonsus Liguori, ” and that is why I am on fire with the desire to give Him souls, first of all my own, and then an incalculable number of others.” This is a practical application of St. Bernard’s Tuus esto ubique” and that other principle of the holy abbot of Clairvaux: “No man is truly wise, who is not wise for himself.” 45 St. Bernard, who was himself a rare miracle of apostolic zeal, followed this rule. Geoffrey of Auxerre, his secretary, depicts him as: Tot us primum sibi et sic totus omnibus. “He belonged, first of all, entirely to himself, and thus he belonged entirely to all men.”
When I lose my peace, it is because I have not prayed intently. When I am impatient, it is because I have not prayed enough. I have to rely entirely on God for all goodness which is in me.
God has given me the grace to recognize that the big obstacle to my acquiring a peaceful and fruitful interior life is my natural activity, and my tendency to be carried away by my work. And I have recognized, besides, that this lack of interior life is the source of all my faults, all my troubles, my dryness, my fits of disgust, and my bad health.
Too much activity causes a whirlwind of chaos in families. Jesus is our example--30 years of silence, 40 days of retreat, and then, and only then, three years of active ministry.
Let us consider the mortal life of Our Lord, a perfect realization of the divine plan. Thirty years of recollection and solitude, then forty days of retreat and penance are the prelude to His brief evangelical career. How often, too, during His apostolic journeys, we see Him retiring to the mountains or the desert to pray: “He retired into the desert and prayed,” or passing the night in prayer: “He passed the whole night in the prayer of God.”
More later....
FYI for those in ministry or with ssa
http://couragerc.org/michigan-conference-2015/
In 1997, when I was the lay person in charge of retreats and RCIA at a Catholic university, which no longer exists as a Catholic institution, I designed and put up on MY bulletin board an advertisement for a Courage meeting I was setting up. There were many lesbians and homosexuals who needed Catholic teaching.
When I came back the next morning, the bulletin board and all the information had been taken down and thrown away by the faculty member in charge of the "Rainbow" movement. She never admitted that she did this, but other faculty members told me the truth. She.also discouraged those who needed the meeting not to support this effort
I fully support Courage.
In 1997, when I was the lay person in charge of retreats and RCIA at a Catholic university, which no longer exists as a Catholic institution, I designed and put up on MY bulletin board an advertisement for a Courage meeting I was setting up. There were many lesbians and homosexuals who needed Catholic teaching.
When I came back the next morning, the bulletin board and all the information had been taken down and thrown away by the faculty member in charge of the "Rainbow" movement. She never admitted that she did this, but other faculty members told me the truth. She.also discouraged those who needed the meeting not to support this effort
I fully support Courage.
Need
I am looking for two small altar stones. If anyone has some, let me know.
I had two years ago, but gave one to a priest and the other to a very excellent Catholic school.
Please let me know in comments by giving me your email address.
Thanks, STM
I had two years ago, but gave one to a priest and the other to a very excellent Catholic school.
Please let me know in comments by giving me your email address.
Thanks, STM
Thursday, 2 July 2015
Calling for Day of Prayer and Penance on July 4th
Will you readers join me, please?
Nothing to celebrate but many things for which to pray and mourn.
Nothing to celebrate but many things for which to pray and mourn.
The Most Important Words I Have Read Today
With Jesus, the interior soul hears the voice of the world’s crime rising up to heaven
and calling down chastisement upon the guilty; and this soul delays the sentence by the
omnipotence of suppliant prayer, which is able to stay the hand of God, just when He is
about to let loose His thunderbolt.
“Those who pray,” said the eminent statesman Donoso Cortes, after his conversion,
“do more for the world than those who fight, and if the world is going from bad to worse,
it is because there are more battles than prayers.”
“Hands uplifted,” said Bossuet, “rout more battalions than hands that strike.” And in
the midst of their desert, the solitaries of the Thebaid often had burning in their hearts the
fire that animated St. Francis Xavier. “They seemed to some,” said St. Augustine, “to
have abandoned the world more than they should have.” Videntur nonnullis res humanas
plus quam oportet deseruisse. But, he adds, people forget that their prayers, purified by
this complete separation from the world, were all the more powerful and more
NECESSARY for a depraved society.
and
And yet now, after fifty years of freedom of education in France, after this half century that has beheld the birth of works without number, and during which we have had, in our hands, the youth of the land, and have enjoyed the almost complete support of the various governments, how is it that, in spite of results that appear, outwardly, to be quite striking, we have been unable to form, in our nation, a majority with enough real Christianity in it to fight against the coalition of the followers of Satan? No doubt, the abandonment of the liturgical life and the cessation of its influence upon the faithful have contributed to this impotence. Our spirituality has become narrow, dry, superficial, external, or altogether sentimental; it does not have the penetration and soul-stirring power that only the Liturgy, that great source of Christian vitality, can give. But is there not another cause to be traced to the fact that we priests and educators, because we lack an intense inner life, are unable to beget in souls anything more than a surface piety, without any powerful ideals or strong convictions? Those of us who are professors: have we not, perhaps, been more ambitious for the distinction of degrees and for the reputation of our colleges than to impart a solid religious instruction to souls? Have we not worn ourselves out on less important things than forming of wills, and imprinting on well-tried characters the stamp of Jesus Christ?
And has not the most frequent cause of this mediocrity been the common banality of our inner life? If the priest is a saint (the saying goes), the people will be fervent; if the priest is fervent, the people will be pious; if the priest is pious, the people will at least be decent. But if the priest is only decent, the people will be godless. The spiritual generation is always one degree less intense in its life than those who beget it in Christ.
Soul of The Apostolate
and
And yet now, after fifty years of freedom of education in France, after this half century that has beheld the birth of works without number, and during which we have had, in our hands, the youth of the land, and have enjoyed the almost complete support of the various governments, how is it that, in spite of results that appear, outwardly, to be quite striking, we have been unable to form, in our nation, a majority with enough real Christianity in it to fight against the coalition of the followers of Satan? No doubt, the abandonment of the liturgical life and the cessation of its influence upon the faithful have contributed to this impotence. Our spirituality has become narrow, dry, superficial, external, or altogether sentimental; it does not have the penetration and soul-stirring power that only the Liturgy, that great source of Christian vitality, can give. But is there not another cause to be traced to the fact that we priests and educators, because we lack an intense inner life, are unable to beget in souls anything more than a surface piety, without any powerful ideals or strong convictions? Those of us who are professors: have we not, perhaps, been more ambitious for the distinction of degrees and for the reputation of our colleges than to impart a solid religious instruction to souls? Have we not worn ourselves out on less important things than forming of wills, and imprinting on well-tried characters the stamp of Jesus Christ?
And has not the most frequent cause of this mediocrity been the common banality of our inner life? If the priest is a saint (the saying goes), the people will be fervent; if the priest is fervent, the people will be pious; if the priest is pious, the people will at least be decent. But if the priest is only decent, the people will be godless. The spiritual generation is always one degree less intense in its life than those who beget it in Christ.
Soul of The Apostolate
A Huge Request
I need to know from my readers a diocese which they think is strongest against the evils now lining up to attack the Church.
I shall most likely not be able to set up the house of prayer here for three reasons. One, the ultra-powerful new age nuns and laity who have captured the "retreat market" and those non-Orthodox nuns using the inclusive language breviaries have a lot of power in the Midwest. This has been true for almost forty years. Two, liberal priests are in the majority, although there is a strong minority growing of younger priests who are solid. Three, the laity does not value contemplative prayer.
Please give me feedback so that I can consider a larger range of possibilities for the small house of prayer.
Thanks, STM
I shall most likely not be able to set up the house of prayer here for three reasons. One, the ultra-powerful new age nuns and laity who have captured the "retreat market" and those non-Orthodox nuns using the inclusive language breviaries have a lot of power in the Midwest. This has been true for almost forty years. Two, liberal priests are in the majority, although there is a strong minority growing of younger priests who are solid. Three, the laity does not value contemplative prayer.
Please give me feedback so that I can consider a larger range of possibilities for the small house of prayer.
Thanks, STM
In case you missed my link on the blog....
Mexican activists target Catholic cardinal with criminal complaints for opposing gay ‘marriage’
June 30, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez, the retired archbishop of Guadalajara, has been made the subject of multiple criminal complaints by homosexual activists following a televised speech in which hedenounced the Mexican Supreme Court’s recent declaration nullifying state laws restricting marriage to a man and a woman, according to Mexican media sources.
In his weekly video address broadcast on the Catholic television network Mariavision last week and redistributed widely on the internet, the cardinal denounced the definition of marriage embraced by the court as “deviant” and a “perversion” of the true nature of marriage, words that describe the Catholic Church’s doctrine on homosexual acts. He also lamented the lack of opposition from Catholic bishops, and theorized that the impulse to redefine marriage is an attempt to destroy the institution as part of a larger plan to establish a “new [world] order” and a single global government.
“Anything outside of this divine institution [of marriage] is an attack against it and is an aberration, and cannot be acceptable to a Catholic,” said Sandoval.
In response, a coalition of at least twelve homosexual organizations has filed criminal complaints with two government agencies claiming that the cardinal’s words are “discriminatory” and “incite violence” against homosexuals.
The cardinal “with his declarations is fomenting homophobia and transphobia,” said Carlos Becerra of the Diverse Union (Unión Diversa), one of the groups filing complaints, in an interview with the Spanish news agency EFE.
“The cardinal thinks that marriage between people of the same sex isn’t a matter of human rights, but human rights are for everyone,” he added.
Mexico’s left-wing Milenio newspaper reports that another homosexualist group, the Cohesion of Diversities for Sustainability (CODISE), plans to file a complaint against Sandoval with the federal Secretariat of Governance, as well as against the seminary of Guadalajara because they “give a talk that incites hatred and discrimination and that generates confusion among heterosexual parents regarding the rejection of their homosexual children, and creates a repressive and suicidal mentality in their homosexual children.”
This is not the first time Cardinal Sandoval and other Catholic prelates and institutions have been threatened with legal action for daring to defend the Catholic Church’s doctrines regarding the immorality of homosexual acts and the nature of the marriage bond.
In August 2010 Sandoval publicly accused Marcelo Ebrard, then the Chief of Government of the nation’s capital, of having “fattened” the Supreme Court with benefits so as to secure rulings in favor of his anti-life agenda, which included abortion and homosexual “marriage.” Ebrard repeatedly threatened and then initiated legal action against Sandoval, using his own personnel to prosecute him on four charges. Ebrard also threatened the spokesman for the archdiocese of Mexico City, Hugo Valdemar, with legal action for stating that the city’s abortion regime was more murderous than narcotraffickers, because it had killed more people. The charges against Sandoval and Valdemar were found to be baseless in a verdict given in 2014, and Ebrard was required to pay all of the legal fees of the archdioceses of Guadalajara and Mexico City.
WOW! Another must read
http://southernorderspage.blogspot.com/2015/07/thank-god-for-anglican-ordinariate-and.html
Episcopalians now will allow gay marriages in their churches.....and some Episcopalians will be joining us.
By Brady Mccombs and Rachel Zoll Associated Press
Episcopalians now will allow gay marriages in their churches.....and some Episcopalians will be joining us.
By Brady Mccombs and Rachel Zoll Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — Episcopalians voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to allow religious weddings for same-sex couples, solidifying the church’s embrace of gay rights that began more than a decade ago with the pioneering election of the first openly gay bishop.
The vote came in Salt Lake City at the Episcopal General Convention, just days after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide. It passed in the House of Deputies, the voting body of clergy and lay participants at the meeting. The House of Bishops had approved the resolution Tuesday by 129-26 with five abstaining.
The Very Rev. Brian Baker of Sacramento said the church rule change was the result of a nearly four-decade long conversation that has been difficult and painful for many. Baker, chairman of the committee that crafted the changes, said church members have not always been kind to one another but that the dynamic has changed in recent decades.
“We have learned to not only care for, but care about one other,” Baker said. “That mutual care was present in the conversations we had. Some people disagreed, some people disagreed deeply, but we prayed and we listened and we came up with compromises that we believe make room and leave no one behind.”
The Soul of The Apostolate, Four
 |
| "Princess alice collision in thames". Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Princess_alice_collision_in_thames.jpg#/media/File:Princess_alice_collision_in_thames.jpg |
I am still waiting to hear a priest in the two churches where I go to Mass daily and on Sunday say something about the decision a week ago. The silent crushes the entire community of the faithful here
Full steam ahead! And while the helmsman is admiring the rapidity of his progress, God sees that, since the pilot does not know his job, the ship is off the course and is in danger of being wrecked. What Our Lord is looking for, above all, is adorers in spirit and in truth. But these activistic heretics, for their part, imagine that they are giving greater glory to God in aiming above all at external results. This state of mind is the explanation why, in our day, in spite of the appreciation still shown for schools, dispensaries, missions, and hospitals, devotion to God in its interior form, by penance and prayer, is less and less understood. No longer able to believe in the value of immolation that nobody sees, your activist will not be content merely to treat as slackers and visionaries those who give themselves, in the cloister, to prayer and penance with an ardor for souls equal to that of the most tireless missionary; but he will also roar with laughter at those active workers who consider it indispensable to snatch a few minutes from even the most useful occupations, in order to go and purify and rekindle their energy before the Tabernacle and to obtain from its Divine Guest, better results for their work.
Many, many years ago, two highly educated and non-Christian people, also very intelligent, but lacking in grace, told me that they thought Catholicism was a morbid religion, because we stressed penance, suffering, mortification. They wanted Christians to be like everyone else, agreeing with their views of a prosperous lifestyle, comfortable niche in this world, and freedom from restrictions as to how they lived.
Some Catholics believe the same lie of activity and deeds bringing about salvation. We call people "good" who are not "good".
God is allowing us all to face reality.
If I do not raise enough money for the small house of prayer, I shall continue in my life of suffering, mortification, and being a fool for Christ wherever I am. But, I shall not be able to devote myself to the daily discipline of prayer as I so desire-which is merely to be in the presence of the Bridegroom, offering up intense interior prayer, which can only be done in stability. Father notes, and this is noted later in this post, that one must be in control of one's environment in order to enter into contemplation. This idea is even more important now.
The state of mind which does not value this may be one reason why I have not succeeded so far. Where are the courageous ones who want to pray on the front lines of spiritual warfare? Where are those who want to support such a small, but necessary effort. But, it takes great effort to enter into the massive, unlimited activity of God in the world. This is partly what the contemplative does-join with God in the silent activity of His life in order to bring life into this world.
Father states in his book...There is no metaphor capable of giving any idea of the infinite intensity of the activity going on in the bosom of Almighty God. Such is the inner life of the Father, that it engenders a Divine Person. From the interior life of the Father and Son proceeds the Holy Spirit. The inner life that was communicated to the apostles in the Cenacle at once aroused them to zealous action. To anyone who knows anything about it and who does not contrive to disfigure the truth, this interior life is a principle of devoted and self-sacrificing action. But even if it did not reveal itself by outward manifestations, the life of prayer is, intimately and of itself, a source of activity beyond compare. Nothing could be more false than to consider it as a sort of oasis, offering itself as a refuge to those who want to let their life flow by in tranquil ease. The mere fact that it is the shortest road to the Kingdom of Heaven means that the text: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away,” 25 is applicable in a most special manner, to the life of prayer.
How refreshing to find Father using the same phrase I have used over and over again on this blog from the words of Christ Himself.
"The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent bear it away."
Those who are willing to either do violence to their own wills and bodies through mortification, or those who allow God to work this out in their lives are those who "bear" the Kingdom of God away.
God takes us up into His suffering, His passion. We do not join ours with Him, that is arrogance. He invites us to be part of His work of salvation of souls on earth by carrying His Cross with Him, enduring suffering with Him.
Dom Sebastian Wyart was familiar with the labors of the ascetic as well as with the trials of army life, the cares of the student, and the responsibilities inseparable from the office of a superior, and he used to say that there were three kinds of works:
1. The almost exclusively physical work of those who live by manual labor, by a craft, or in the army. And he declares that, no matter what one may think about it, this kind of work is the easiest of the three. St. Benedict asks his followers for work, as it actually relieves the intensity of contemplation, besides being necessary.
The intellectual toil of the scholar, the thinker, in his often arduous pursuit of truth; that of the writer, of the professor, who put everything they have into the effort to communicate all they know to others; of the diplomat, the financier, the engineer and so on, as well as the intellectual labor required of a general during a battle if he is to foresee and direct everything and make the proper decisions. This labor in itself is, he said, far more difficult than the first kind, for there is a saying that “the blade wears out its sheath.”
Research, reading, finding and sharing the truth, writing has been mostly the focus of my work, even on this blog. This is hard, but a real joy, as these things have been my vocation as well as prayer. Of course, I have not earned a living from blogging, although some readers have helped me considerably. I have never wanted fame on this blog, only the relentless pursuit of truth and the saving of souls, as well as the leading of the saved to sainthood, including myself, through these efforts.
3. Finally, there is the labor of the interior life. And he did not hesitate to declare that of the three, this kind, when it is taken seriously, is by far the most exacting. But at the same time, it is this kind that offers us the most satisfaction here on earth. It is likewise the most important. It goes to make up not so much a man’s profession as the man himself. How many there are who can boast of great courage in the first two types of labor, which lead to wealth and fame, but who, when it comes to the effort to acquire virtue, are totally deficient in ambition, energy, or courage.
A man who is determined to acquire an interior life must take, for his ideal, unremitting domination of self and complete control over his environment, in order to act in all things solely for the glory of God.
This is key--which is why I am begging for the little house of contemplative prayer. I am not allowed to be in charge of my environment, as a fool for Christ. The glory of God on this earth is thwarted by the lack of discipline, which one can set up if one has the desire to do so.
To achieve this aim, he must strive, under all circumstances, to keep united with Jesus Christ and thus to keep his eye on the end he has in view, and to evaluate everything according to the standard of the Gospel. Quo vadam, et ad quid? he keeps saying, with St. Ignatius. And so, everything in him, intelligence and will, as well as memory, feelings, imagination, and senses, depends on principle.
This paragraph describes me. And, those who do not live by principle cannot and will not understand this interior search for the Indwelling of the Trinity
But to achieve this result, what an effort it will cost him! Whether he is mortifying himself or permitting himself some legitimate enjoyment, whether he is thinking or acting, at work or at rest, loving what is good or turning away in repugnance from what is evil, whether he is moved by desire or by fear, joy or sorrow, fear or hope, whether he feels indignation or is calm; in all things, and always, he endeavors to keep his course dead ahead, in the direction of God’s good pleasure.
Nothing without God, nothing without asking daily for His Will to be done in all things.....
At prayer, and especially before the Blessed Sacrament, he isolates himself more completely than ever from all visible things, that he may come to converse with the invisible God as if he saw Him. in the midst of his apostolic labors he will manage to realize this ideal, which St. Paul admired in Moses.
It is too easy to become distracted. Last year, someone I know said of me to a friend, "She is very focused". But, even I have to tear myself away from those I serve, those I love in order to pray, which is my first duty and call. This book encourages me....I pray you all do as well. The life of the contemplative by definition is one of being alone with God, but one needs the moral support of those who understand Father Chautard's message.
What a job! And yet it is not hard to understand how God rewards, even here below, with special joys, those who do not flinch at the effort which this work demands. “Idlers?” Dom Sebastian concludes, “Are these true religious, or these truly interior and zealous priests idlers? Nonsense! Let the busiest men of affairs in the world come and take a look at our life, and see how their labors compare with ours!” Who does not know this from experience? There are times when we might be inclined to prefer long hours in some exhausting occupation to half an hour of serious mental prayer, to an attentive hearing of Mass, or to the careful and intelligent recitation of the Breviary.
to be continued...
VIP Read
http://southernorderspage.blogspot.com/2015/07/here-we-go-macon-georgia-may-become.html
My final comments: Today's Catholic administrators will be taken to court. Tomorrow's Catholic administrators will be sentenced to prison and day after tomorrow's Catholic administrators will be martyred. When the USA collapses as an institution as it surely will out of divine punishment, the Catholic Church will remain to carry on her authentic mission in the world which is first and foremost the salvation of souls. Everything else is icing on the cake! from this link above
My final comments: Today's Catholic administrators will be taken to court. Tomorrow's Catholic administrators will be sentenced to prison and day after tomorrow's Catholic administrators will be martyred. When the USA collapses as an institution as it surely will out of divine punishment, the Catholic Church will remain to carry on her authentic mission in the world which is first and foremost the salvation of souls. Everything else is icing on the cake! from this link above
From The Soul of The Apostolate, Three
I shall do a little mini-series on this excellent book. One of the things which Fr. Chautard emphasizes is that political actions and religious activity mean nothing if not backed up with prayer. The good priest reminds us that God created us to have a rich interior life, which leads to union with him.
Secum vivebat St. Gregory the Great said of Benedict--He lived with himself. By cultivating a relationship with God, we come to know ourselves and God. Living in the present moment with God means living with ourselves fully as well. This problem of running away from one's true self mars the growth of our own culture. What Father describes here is the focus of my life, and that of every true Catholic who has fallen in love with God.
To live with oneself, within oneself; to desire self-control, and not allow oneself to be dominated by exterior things; to reduce the imagination, the feelings, and even the intelligence and memory to the position of servants of the will and to make this will conform, without ceasing, with the will of God: all this is a program that is less and less welcome to a century of excitement that has seen the birth of a new ideal: the love of action for action’s sake. Any pretext will serve, if we can only escape this discipline of our faculties: business, family problems, health, good reputation, patriotism, the honor of one’s congregation, and the pretended glory of God, all vie with one another in preventing us from living within ourselves. This sort of frenzy for exterior life finally succeeds in gaining over us an attraction which we can no longer resist.
Over activity leads to self-deceit. One can think one is doing good deeds for God when in reality God has been set aside . Daily, I see in this country people hiding from God, letting themselves be distracted by things, people, action, action, action.
Frenzy is from Satan. Period. Novelty is from the Evil One. Distractions kill the life of the soul.
And, unless Americans think I am picking unduly on them, Father Chautard is only too aware of the heresy of Americanism, which includes an unhealthy preoccupation with good deeds and building a physical Kingdom of God, rather than a spiritual one.
Is there any reason to be surprised, then, that the interior life is neglected? “Neglected” is putting it mildly. It is often enough despised and turned to ridicule by the very people who ought to be the first to appreciate its advantages and its necessity. This situation even called forth the celebrated letter of Leo XIII to Cardinal Gibbons,in protest against the disastrous consequences of an exclusive admiration for active works.
I feel today as if this good priest is speaking to me personally-with my desire to set up a place for the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.
Priests are so anxious to avoid the effort required to live an interior life that they reach the point of overlooking the value of living with Christ, in Christ and through Christ, and of forgetting that everything, in the plan of Redemption, is based on the Eucharistic life as much as it is upon the rock of Peter. The unconscious preoccupation of these partisans of a spirituality that is all noise and fanfare, is to thrust what is essential into the background. True, the Church has not yet become for them a Protestant chapel; the Tabernacle is not yet empty. But in their eyes, the Eucharistic life can hardly be adapted to the needs of modern civilization, still less can it suffice for its needs. The interior life, which is a necessary consequence of the Eucharistic life, has had its day. For the people steeped in these theories, and their number is legion, Holy Communion has lost the true meaning which the early Christians were able to see in it. They believe in the Eucharist, yes; but they no longer see in it something absolutely necessary, both to their works and to themselves. We must not be astonished, then, that since they have lost nearly all ability to converse intimately with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, as with a friend, they have come to consider the interior life as a memory of the Middle Ages.
So, as we are only too aware, the Church has come under attack, even by priests, who want to protestantize the Mass and all the sacraments, as well as uglify the churches in the name of progress. Contemplation is a lost art, a misplaced goal, in this country. And, to placate those who have ridicules the life of prayer in monasteries and convents in the past, too many Catholics have fallen into the false ideal which states that actions are more important than prayer.
Hard words follow....
Imperceptibly, a number of the faithful, and even of priests and religious, follow this cult of action to the point of making it a kind of dogma which inspires their attitude and all their actions, and leads them to throw themselves without restraint into a life of extroversion. “The Church, the diocese, the parish, the congregation, the work has need of me,” we can almost hear them say, “God finds me pretty useful.” And if no one dares come right out with such a piece of stupidity, nevertheless there exists, deep down in the heart, the presumption on which it is based and the lack of faith which fomented it.
I have written before that the worst thing which has happened has been the destruction of the quiet, prayerful home, centered around the heart of the home, the stay-at-home mum, would can pray and set up the discipline and schedule necessary for all in the family to become saints. The quiet, peaceful home is rare, as contemplation flees a house of chaotic, ceaseless action.
More later,...busybakson, and how ironic....
Secum vivebat St. Gregory the Great said of Benedict--He lived with himself. By cultivating a relationship with God, we come to know ourselves and God. Living in the present moment with God means living with ourselves fully as well. This problem of running away from one's true self mars the growth of our own culture. What Father describes here is the focus of my life, and that of every true Catholic who has fallen in love with God.
To live with oneself, within oneself; to desire self-control, and not allow oneself to be dominated by exterior things; to reduce the imagination, the feelings, and even the intelligence and memory to the position of servants of the will and to make this will conform, without ceasing, with the will of God: all this is a program that is less and less welcome to a century of excitement that has seen the birth of a new ideal: the love of action for action’s sake. Any pretext will serve, if we can only escape this discipline of our faculties: business, family problems, health, good reputation, patriotism, the honor of one’s congregation, and the pretended glory of God, all vie with one another in preventing us from living within ourselves. This sort of frenzy for exterior life finally succeeds in gaining over us an attraction which we can no longer resist.
Over activity leads to self-deceit. One can think one is doing good deeds for God when in reality God has been set aside . Daily, I see in this country people hiding from God, letting themselves be distracted by things, people, action, action, action.
Frenzy is from Satan. Period. Novelty is from the Evil One. Distractions kill the life of the soul.
And, unless Americans think I am picking unduly on them, Father Chautard is only too aware of the heresy of Americanism, which includes an unhealthy preoccupation with good deeds and building a physical Kingdom of God, rather than a spiritual one.
Is there any reason to be surprised, then, that the interior life is neglected? “Neglected” is putting it mildly. It is often enough despised and turned to ridicule by the very people who ought to be the first to appreciate its advantages and its necessity. This situation even called forth the celebrated letter of Leo XIII to Cardinal Gibbons,in protest against the disastrous consequences of an exclusive admiration for active works.
I feel today as if this good priest is speaking to me personally-with my desire to set up a place for the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.
Priests are so anxious to avoid the effort required to live an interior life that they reach the point of overlooking the value of living with Christ, in Christ and through Christ, and of forgetting that everything, in the plan of Redemption, is based on the Eucharistic life as much as it is upon the rock of Peter. The unconscious preoccupation of these partisans of a spirituality that is all noise and fanfare, is to thrust what is essential into the background. True, the Church has not yet become for them a Protestant chapel; the Tabernacle is not yet empty. But in their eyes, the Eucharistic life can hardly be adapted to the needs of modern civilization, still less can it suffice for its needs. The interior life, which is a necessary consequence of the Eucharistic life, has had its day. For the people steeped in these theories, and their number is legion, Holy Communion has lost the true meaning which the early Christians were able to see in it. They believe in the Eucharist, yes; but they no longer see in it something absolutely necessary, both to their works and to themselves. We must not be astonished, then, that since they have lost nearly all ability to converse intimately with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, as with a friend, they have come to consider the interior life as a memory of the Middle Ages.
So, as we are only too aware, the Church has come under attack, even by priests, who want to protestantize the Mass and all the sacraments, as well as uglify the churches in the name of progress. Contemplation is a lost art, a misplaced goal, in this country. And, to placate those who have ridicules the life of prayer in monasteries and convents in the past, too many Catholics have fallen into the false ideal which states that actions are more important than prayer.
Hard words follow....
Imperceptibly, a number of the faithful, and even of priests and religious, follow this cult of action to the point of making it a kind of dogma which inspires their attitude and all their actions, and leads them to throw themselves without restraint into a life of extroversion. “The Church, the diocese, the parish, the congregation, the work has need of me,” we can almost hear them say, “God finds me pretty useful.” And if no one dares come right out with such a piece of stupidity, nevertheless there exists, deep down in the heart, the presumption on which it is based and the lack of faith which fomented it.
I have written before that the worst thing which has happened has been the destruction of the quiet, prayerful home, centered around the heart of the home, the stay-at-home mum, would can pray and set up the discipline and schedule necessary for all in the family to become saints. The quiet, peaceful home is rare, as contemplation flees a house of chaotic, ceaseless action.
More later,...busybakson, and how ironic....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)