Requiem for Free Speech Post 14 Today

You had all better read this.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/13/barrett-brown-political-prisoner-information-revolution

Because of a flurry of incidents regarding bloggers, on line commentators and references, I shall no longer on this blog give links to political articles. I find this is necessary until I have clear direction as to international law regarding links, cutting and pasting and so on. I can recommend several sites for you all to follow instead and will make you do your own research. Sadly, this is the way things are going. Follow Buchanan and Spencer daily for a start. That is all I shall say at this point. Here is an example of what is going on and what will get worse.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/316751-snowden-nsa-targeted-journalists-critical-of-government-after-911?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer4a2b2&utm_medium=twitter

Also, I have noticed much error on blogs and websites which  are suppose to be Catholic, but are deviating from Church teaching. I shall never quote those blogs and websites. Sadly, this is getting more common. I have stopped following some sites because of the nonsense resulting from the recent ssm debate and what the Pope did or did not say. Sadly, I may have to stop following some on line magazines, which have also fallen into direct disobedience to Rome. By the way, if the CDF makes a statement and it is signed, that is part of the second layer of infallibility of the Church. I do not argue against infallible statements and try to clarify such on this blog.

The Vatican has made it clear that posting bits of new information is not allowed. I have been using things which are in the public domain, to my knowledge. However, again, I shall confine my posts to things which are freely available. This will mean certain themes will disappear from this blog. However, the perfection series can continue.

As you all know, the good Fr. Tim has this helpful article on his blog.  This is good news for bloggers.

http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.ie/2013/08/getty-open-content-and-church.html

Thirteen Post Day

Not a record, but get a coffee and have a read....

Do not wonder why Ireland is no longer Catholic....

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/08/in-october-at-vatican-pope-francis-will.html

As of today, the Irish bishops have not agreed to be part of the world-wide consecration to Mary by the Pope in October.  And, http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/08/collegiality-fails-faithful-once-again.html

Persecution Watch

http://www.aina.org/news/2013089111228.htm

There are so many articles on Christians being killed in many countries over the weekend, and yesterday, that I can hardly keep track.

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=23104 

and update from August 14th

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/499052/20130814/morsi-supporters-attack-coptic-churches-sohag-menya.htm#.UgvHbiiOWbA.twitter

Bleeding Heart

My heart is heavy with several prayer requests from young, Catholic couples who are married and are not getting pregnant. I know so many.

Let us all stop and pray to St. Gianna Molla for them. Their hearts are heavy. I also have a novena on this blog found here. It has been exactly one year since I place that novena on the blog. Please pray for four couples. http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.ie/2012/08/novena-to-st-gianna-beretta-molla.html

Another great article from Buchanan

Putin is trying to re-establish the Orthodox Church as the moral compass of the nation it had been for 1,000 years before Russia fell captive to the atheistic and pagan ideology of Marxism.

"The adoption of Christianity," declared Putin, "became a turning point in the fate of our fatherland, made it an inseparable part of the Christian civilization and helped turn it into one of the largest world powers."

http://buchanan.org/blog/post-v-putin-whose-side-are-you-on-5760

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html

The Pit House Ending

A rush of men led by the sorcerer and followed by a man dressed as the king entered the throne room. The sorcerer yelled, "Who desecrates this sacred place?" But Tete screamed, "Teikō" , as she saw her brother. Teikō  ran to Tete, as his spell was broken, but the evil sorcerer cried, "Seize them" to his men. Within an instant, the sorcerer lay dead under the huge body of the wolf king, the noble animal pierced by many arrows from the sorcerer's small army. Within minutes, the battle was over, won by the wolf pack, King Akihiko, and his loyal band. The evil officers lay dead, and the others surrendered in shame.



Teikō watched as his sister lay next to the body of the noble wolf king. She wept and wept. All the men stood silently until the King ordered that the body of the brave animal be placed on the dais next to his father. Within days, the two were buried together in a great mound near the palace.

Many days of mourning passed before Teikō and Tete spoke with King Akihiko. The wolf pack had left to stay outside in the courtyard of the king. Akihiko asked the lovely Tete to be his wife, and she agreed, under the condition that her brother be fully pardoned and allowed to go home. The King said that after the time of sadness, he would allow Teikō to go where he would desire to go.

After several weeks, Teikō left and returned to the Pit House, where he shaved his head and put on the robe of a monk. He became a holy man, with one difference, that he was always accompanied by a tame wolf. The Pit House was visited by many people who wanted the advice of one who had suffered. As Teikō grew old, the wolf grew old with him and more and more resembled the great wolf king who had been buried with the king of the white palace. Some said it was the offspring of the great wolf king.

Akihiko and Tete gave land in the forest and mountains to the wolf pack. And peace entered the valleys. 

The Pit House Part Four

A huge crash broke the silence of the dungeon, and all the wolves stood up, looking towards the iron gate at the end of the room. A small light could be seen in the distance behind the bars of the gate. Tete could hear low growls. Suddenly, they animals and Tete heard yelling but echoing, as if far away, and a metal door could be heard scraping and being slammed shut. Footsteps were heard running away from the room where the pack waited, watched, ready. But the light disappeared and Tete knew some one had been left behind in a cell. The wolves moved towards the gated, but waited. Then, the wolf king leaned its entire weight against it and it opened. "I have done this before. All follow me." Tete got back up on the wolf king's back and the entire pack silently moved down a small corridor with doors on either side. The air smelled of death.

The wolf king stopped by one door. It was a solid door, with no window and the lock was thick. The wolf king opened his huge mouth and chomped the lock into two. Then, it pushed the door opened with its front paws and Tete slid off its back and stood behind the large animal.

Barely, in the darkness, the pack and Tete could see a young man of about thirty with long red hair pulled back in a long braid. He had been beaten, but was quite able to stand up. He came towards the door and then, a look of shock came over his handsome face.

"I have seen you before, Great Wolf. You fought the courtiers years ago, after the great storm drove your pack into the valley."

The wolf king did not answer, but moved to one side. Tete was face to face with her brother. But, was it?

She knew she had to recognize the master to break the spell of her brother. If she identified this man incorrectly, all was lost.

She slipped the sapphire ring onto her small finger and held out her hand to the man.  He took her hand, but said nothing to her.

"You are the prince of this land. I recognize you as the master."

The wolves remained silent, and the man came out of the door into the small hallway.

"Yes, I am the prince, and I have been changed for another who looks like me. He is a fraud. I am to die here, while those who wish to take the kingdom from me are victorious. They have already killed my father, whose body lies in state just above us in the main chamber of the throne room. But, why are you here and what do these wolves have to do with me?"

Tete said nothing, but the wolf king growled, "We are here to help this woman, Tete, free both you and her brother, used by evil men. When you have regained power with our help, we shall ask you for part of the forest and mountains for our own. Then, we shall take Tete back to her house, with her brother, and you will be king."

The prince answered, "I do not know who is faithful to me among my men. Those who took me and put me here were trusted soldiers, officers. I have no one and no one knows of the man who is in my place as a fraud."

Tete spoke. "Help us help you, and we shall be content, but I beg of you not to punish my brother, who is innocent." The prince stared at this lovely woman. She could have been his sister, they looked so much alike.

"So be it." The prince agreed that the wolves would lead the way into the secret tunnel into the throne room which was done quickly. A smallish hatch door pushed open into a corner of the throne room, where the body of the king lay in state, surrounded by two guards.

"Let me go first, and see how they respond to me. If they attack me, you attack them. but if they are bewildered, wait in the darkness until I call for you."

The prince, whose name was Akihiko, moved into the light and walked towards the two guards.

"My Lord, what are you doing here and why you have been beaten!" Akihiko knew they were his men.

He quickly told them what had happened. Then he said, "You must find out how many are faithful to me, but before you do, look at the army I have with me." And he beckoned the pack to move forward into the light.

The soldiers could not believe a pack of twenty wolves, led by a giant one and a young woman. They were stunned into silence.

Akihiko said, "Gather those who are loyal to me and meet us here. We shall stay hidden until you come back. Do not touch the other false prince. Do not."

The men left and the prince went over to his dead father. He bowed his head and then, he took the sword from the side of the dead king and held it up. He was a king now. Tete knew she had recognized the master.

Torches came into the room, and about thirty to forty soldiers followed the two guards. They all knelt before the prince. "King Akihiko, we are loyal to you. Tell us what to do."

To be continued....

The Pit House, Part Three

Tete could feel the air getting colder and colder, as the mountain path grew steeper and steeper. The air stung her face, and hurt her lungs as she breathed. The wolf king ran as if fires were behind him, but then, Tete noticed strange pairings of light in the darkness. On either side of her and the wolf king, were dozens of eyes floating, sometimes moving up an sometimes down. Then, she realized she could hear the dull thud of paws on the hard ground and stone. She was surrounded by wolves. The wolf king must have called his pack, the last of the wolves in the entire valley. She whispered, "I thought you were alone, the only one left of your kind."

The wolf king replied slowly, taking deep breaths as it ran."I, too, thought I was the last, but when I howled in joy for life returning to me, I was answered by many of my kind. And they are here."

The silence was broken only by the sound of animals running in the dark. Then, suddenly the tree line ended and all was clear sky and mountain peaks. The pack stopped and all the wolves reclined for a moment on the flat plain before all. In the distance, Tete could see the white castle, darkened with no lights, but a faint reflection of the full moon revealed its features.

The wolves remained silent, but suddenly got up and began running down the other side of the small plain, into a mountain valley, then after an hour, the pack was in a different forest.

Beech trees crowded around them all, laden with yellow leaves. Already some of the leaven lay on the ground, as winter was coming. Tete could barely see them, but she could hear the crunching sounds ever so lightly under the paws of the wolf pack. Then, the pack stopped again. The wolf king sat on its haunches and Tete slid off. There, in front of them was a stream of will water. The wolves drank and Tete did, too, using her hands. The water had ice in it, and was as cold as death, but clear.

"We shall travel all night, crossing this stream into the kingdom, and not resting until we reach caverns near the palace. There, we shall rest, and wait until it is dark again, as we shall only travel in the night. There are ferocious dogs surrounding the palace, but we have a secret way through the caverns. Do not be afraid."

Tete whispered, "I am not afraid" and the wolves plunged into the stream and swam to the other side. Tete was hardly wet, as the wolf king was so large. They raced through the other side of the beech wood, just as the pre-dawn light was coming into the woods, when suddenly, the land dropped steeply and Tete could see nothing but rock. The pack moved into a long tunnel and finally, all the animals, led by the wolf king, went underground. Tete noticed that the air was warm and a bit stuffy. She held on, as the path wound down. Surrounded by rock walls, Tete could not tell in what direction the pack moved, when in an instant, the entire pack was on a sandy plain stretching out to a small river, in a huge cavern miles under the woods.

The wolf king spoke, "We are safe here, as no men have ever found this place. We shall eat some of the strange, pale fish in this river and then rest. One wolf remains at the hole to the path as guard. Then, when most of the day has passed, we shall travel underground until we enter the castle from beneath.

This is an old secret way carved out by men by forgotten except by beasts. When we come out, we shall be underneath the dungeons under the throne room. But, enough, let us eat and sleep."

Some wolves were catching fish out of the stream by pouncing  and flipping the fish out, as if the wolves were bears. All ate and the fish, although strange to Tete, were good and wholesome. She did not know when she fell asleep, but she did, leaning against the warm side of the wolf king.

Hours passed, when all the wolves woke up at exactly the same time. The wolf which had been at the entrance now joined the pack and they resumed their strange journey through paths under the earth. Slowly the paths became inclined, narrow ways, some with steps, until, as the wolf king had said, Tete noticed foundations and the signs of large tunnels no longer natural but made by humans.

The wolves squeezed themselves through a pathway and came out under a room with a gate at one end. Tete knew they were in a prison.

For the first time, she felt fear.

"We know a way out, but it is not time yet. The night is almost over again and it will be morning in the world above. But, this dungeon is ancient and lead directly to the room where the king of this country holds court.
Again, we shall wait for a sign,"and the entire pack laid down and fell asleep instantly.

To be continued....

The Pit House Part Two

Early the next morning, as the mist was coming off the large lake, Tete went outside and looked at the mountains west of the lake. She knew winter was coming soon and that she would have to start her journey immediately. But, as she was putting leaves around her roses, banking them up to stay warm when she was gone, after she had brought all her courtyard things into the Pit House, her bronze tub, the ladle, a chair made of beech, stumps which she used as a table and chair, and three lamps, another strange thing happened. She heard horses hooves. She left the garden and climbed up on top of her house. The soft grass, green and bright, was turning slightly yellow, as the cold was settling into the valley. As she looked north, she saw two riders in black approaching her. She was more afraid of them than she had been the wolf king. She was about to run and lock herself in her house, when one called to her.

"Stop, maiden, we need to speak with you. We come from a far kingdom and we know your name is Tete."

Tete was so surprised, she could hardly believe the words. The men were in armour and there horses were heavy, like war horses. "We know who you are and we have come to take you to your brother, who lives in the castle beyond the mountains." If Tete had not heard the story the day before from the wolf king, she would not have listened to these men. They looked fierce and warlike, and she was afraid.

"Why now, after all these years, do soldiers in armour and ready to fight come to me, defenceless, with a tale of my brother?"

The two men dismounted. "He himself has sent us, Tete. He needs you and wants you to come with us. We have a token of our truth " With that, the tallest soldier put a small ring in Tete's hand, a blue sapphire the colour of the waters of the large lake. It was Tete's baby ring.

"But, why should I trust you, even though you have this token?" She was fearful because of the plot against the prince and the king. She thought these rough men could be the ones who would be using her brother.

The shorter one spoke, and despite his rough look, Tete thought that his eyes were kind, even caring. |But, she was wary.

"Your brother is being used by evil men and an sorcerer who has him under a spell. These men want to replace the prince with your brother and use him like a puppet. They have made plans with the sorcerer to kill the true prince and the king and place your poor brother on the throne. However, they will kill your brother eventually, as they care for nothing but power. When he is no longer useful, he, too, will be dead.

Now, your brother gave me this ring years ago, when the spell was weak and asked me to find you, but he told me that I was not to get you until the last moment of the plot against the prince was in place, as he feared for your own life. Now, after all these years, when both your brother and the prince are in the strength of young manhood, we have come, as we know the terms of the spell."

Tete thought to test the men, "And, what are those terms and how do you know them? Perhaps the sorcerer told you and you are tricking me for some reason.""

The taller soldier spoke, "Young woman, would we bother to come if there was not a chance to save both the prince, who is good, and your brother? Why should we risk our lives to seek you out, for you are the one to break the spell by recognising the true prince."

"What if the evil sorcerer knew I existed and wanted to kill me as well?" The men were silent, and then, Tete saw them tremble with fear, and take out their swords, for behind Tete was the wolf king.

"Tete, get behind me. I shall deal with these men."

The men could not believe the speech of the wolf king, nor Tete's trust in this giant animal. They stepped back and ran back to their horses, riding away as fast as they could.

The wolf king looked at Tete, "You were right to be cautious. I am glad you stalled them, as they are from the sorcerer and they would have killed you"

Tete looked at the wolf king as it was no longer weak, but strong. It did not look like it was dying.

"King Wolf, was has happened? You look healthy and strong." Tete was so bold as to put her hand on its huge head. The wolf bowed down and let her pet it like a dog.

"I rested in the deep woods, thinking that the night was my last, when suddenly, a light enveloped me like the dawn and I felt life surging back into me. Then, I looked up and there was a woman in light smiling at me. The spirit was your mother. She did not speak, but I knew she was blessing me for the burial my tribe, my pack had given her by the water's edge so many years ago. Now, I shall go with you to save both the prince and your brother. But, we shall go by a hidden path, as the men will watch to see if you go to your brother, You must ride on my back, for you are not strong enough to go the way I shall take you. Get a coat and scarf and come now. We do not have time."

Tete went into the Pit House and brought out her coat and scarf. She locked the door and in a few seconds, was on the enormous back of the wolf king, which moved quietly into the dark forest. Then, it raced up a path surrounded by dense trees and into the mountains from another way.

To be continued....

Blog Fairy Tale Three-The Pit House Part One.

In a deep forest of red pine trees, which surrounded an huge lake, and was nestled between a circle of mountains, live a young woman of rare beauty. Her hair was the color of the pine bark and her voice like the laps of water sweeping against the dark sands of limestone remains of the mountains.

Her eyes reflected the bright green of the tall grasses in the foothills, and her name was Tete. By the time this story begins, Tete was an orphan. Her old father and young mother, as well as as brother had died from the storm which caused the wolves to come off the hills into the valley. Her father went off to fight them and never came back. Her mother went to look for the father, and never came back. When Tete's brother wanted revenge, he swore he would kill all the wolves in the mountains. Tete begged him not to go, but he left and never came back.  But, before he left, Tete gave him her small, little girls's ring, out of love. It was a sapphire, the colour of the large lake. She never saw him again. Years passed and Tete managed to live on fish and the many berries in the valley. She never saw any wolves, except the day before something else strange happened.

Tete was in the garden, as she loved roses, and grew many different kinds. The scents of her garden filled the little space between the forest and the lake. On this day, Tete was cutting back branches when she heard a breathing sound on the other side of her wattle fence. There, in the shade of the pine trees, was the largest wolf she had ever seen. Its coat was almost blue, and its face was three or four times the size of Tete's head. She backed up to reach the door to her house. Now, Tete's house was a Pit House. it lay in the side of one of the smaller foothills, which has escaped the large hills. Her Pit House was completely underground except for a small courtyard in the front, where Tete had a small bath and some plants. The problem was that the wattle fence around the garden ended where the courtyard began, and any animal could jump up onto the green grassy roof of the Pit House and jump down into the small courtyard. This is exactly what the giant wolf did.

It stood between  Tete and the door of her house, and stared at her. Its teeth were larger than Tete's arms. She almost fainted with fear. Then, the animal opened its mouth and wonder, of wonders, it spoke.

"Do not be afraid, human. I shall not eat you. My days on this earth are short and I am no longer hungry."

Tete's  fear fell off of her like rain water on the courtyard wall. "I am the king of the wolves, but I am also the last one left in this valley. All, all have been killed by men moving into the mountains and hills. Your own father killed many before he died."

Tete bowed her head and began to cry. This was the first news in years she had heard of her father and now she knew he was dead. The wolf continued, "Your brave mother died as well, but not by our doing. She died crossing the heavy stream leading out of the large lake. We saw her drown and marvelled at her courage. When she was washed ashore, the pack covered her with rocks so no one would touch her body."

The king wolf stopped. "But, your brother is still alive, and I am hear to tell you what you must do to free him."

"I have injured too many humans and want to die in peace, leaving the hatred in my heart and the fear in my bones from the encroachment of men in what was once my valley. I decided to make some amends for the great hatred in my heart for men by telling you that your brother lives but is a captive in a kingdom of men on the other side of the mountains west of here."

The wolf stopped talking. "May I have some water, as I am dying even now", he rasped.  Tete was still afraid, but she had a bronze tub which caught rain water in the courtyard and she drew water for the wolf. Carefully, she brought it to him and let it drink out of a ladle.

"You are not like the other humans. You have kindness towards me in your heart." The wolf sank down on the stones of the courtyard. It was, indeed, dying.

"Quickly, listen and memorize what I am going to say. The path along the lake leads to a smaller path through the western mountains. Take that path. You will travel for three days until you come to a fork in the road. Take the left fork and continue up and up until you see the other side of the mountain range. Then, you will see a castle of white rock built out of the side of the mountain, very much like your small Pit House, only grand. Within that castle lives your brother."

Tete was so astonished she dropped the ladle. She began to cry aloud, "Why is he there? Is he in danger? I shall find him and free him."

The giantic wolf stared at Tete."You would have made a great wolf-queen. You have the heart of boldness. But, there is more. I have little time, so control yourself and listen." The wolf now laid its head on its front paws and closed its eyes. "Your brother looks exactly like the king's son, and when the courtiers found him wandering in the woods, they took him for the prince. But, they keep him as a servant, plotting to overthrown the prince when he is king by supplanting your own brother. He is duped into thinking the prince is evil, but he is not."

"You can free your brother but only in one way, as there is magic involved here. You will enter the castle and you will have to identify the real prince, who is disguised now as the prince's servant. The enemies of the castle and country want to destroy the real king, so your brother has been put in his place."

"Here is the test. You cannot mistake the servant for the master or the master for the servant. If you do, your brother will remain under a spell and eventually be used for evil. But, if you recognize who is the real master, the prince who rules the land after the death of the king, you will free your brother."

The wolf rolled to one side, then it stood up and walked past Tete, into the garden, through the gate and to the edge of the wood.

It looked at Tete, and then said, "I go to the land of dust. I shall leave you and die in the forest. I wish your people well, and I give up my hatred for humans by this tale and because of your kindness."

Tete watched the wolf leave. She wanted to run after it and beg it to stay, and she would take care of it, but the nobility of the animal spoke to her heart that it wanted to die alone. She turned and went into the Pit House, as it was now dark and cried for her dead parents as well as her entrapped brother.

To be continued.

Dark Night 30-The Enclosure of God

My comments in blue...

I shall tell what Jeremias felt about it, which, since there is so much of it, he describes and bewails in many words after this manner: ‘I am the man that see my poverty in the rod of His indignation; He hath threatened me and brought me into darkness and not into light. So far hath He turned against me and hath converted His hand upon me all the day! My skin and my flesh hath He made old; He hath broken my bones; He hath made a fence around me and compassed me with gall and trial; He hath set me in dark places, as those that are dead for ever. He hath made a fence around me and against me, that I may not go out; He hath made my captivity heavy. 

The enclosure is really seen and felt. One becomes more constricted in movement and freedoms. One can no longer do what one wants to do but only rest in the daily awareness that one is in God's Mysterious Will. The fence is the denial of self.

Health may becomes a limitation, or poverty, or loss of friendship. Unhappiness in a job, or the lack of promotion, or the thwarting of plans can be this fence. Anything can be a fence which God uses to try the soul and the heart. One can only say, "Thy Will be done."

Yea, and when I have cried and have entreated, He hath shut out my prayer. He hath enclosed my paths and ways out with square stones; He hath thwarted my steps. He hath set ambushes for me; He hath become to me a lion in a secret place. He hath turned aside my steps and broken me in pieces, He hath made me desolate; He hath bent His bow and set me as a mark for His arrow. He hath shot into my reins the daughters of His quiver. 

And, one is derided, as, sadly, there are more snobs in the Catholic world than those who are open to understand one who has been denied all by God. This is why more young people understand me than those in their late middle age. Those older ones only see the failures and the fences. They do not want to see what is really happening to the soul. Such a journey is threatening. 

If one wants to lose friends in the middle class, just tell them you are poor. 

I have become a derision to all the people, and laughter and scorn for them all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness and hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath broken my teeth by number; He hath fed me with ashes. My soul is cast out from peace; I have forgotten good things. And I said: “Mine end is frustrated and cut short, together with my desire and my hope from the Lord. Remember my poverty and my excess, the wormwood and the gall. I shall be mindful with remembrance and my soul shall be undone within me in pains.”’127

To be continued....

Dark Night Part 29

 ... At times, however, they are so keen that the soul seems to be seeing hell and perdition opened. Of such are they that in truth go down alive into hell, being purged here on earth in the same manner as there, since this purgation is that which would have to be accomplished there. And thus the soul that passes through this either enters not that place125 at all, or tarries there but for a very short time; for one hour of purgation here is more profitable than are many there.

This last sentence resonates like thunder rolling up over a valley. If one is shown a place in hell, one may be confused as to what the symbolism or content mean. The reality begins to dawn on one that unless one goes forward into more purgation and purification, that place waits.

There is no turning back in the spiritual life. One either moves forward, or slides back into old ways. 

Painting by Xaver Triner (1767-1824), commissioned by the Government of the Canton Schwyz, - See more at: http://historyofgeology.fieldofscience.com/2010/09/2-september-1806-landslide-of-goldau.html#sthash.HXGDsdgA.dpuf

The Dark Night of the Soul Part 28

I am beginning to realize how small the group of Catholics it is that want to reach perfection. Most people who have discussed this with me only want comfort.

If one seeks comfort, one will never become perfect. The last few days, I have approached the Dark Night in popular and modern terminology and metaphor. Today, I return to John of the Cross. His words must be taken seriously by those who want to see God.

My highlights are in blue.

The fourth kind of pain is caused in the soul by another excellence of this dark contemplation, which is its majesty and greatness, from which arises in the soul a consciousness of the other extreme which is in itself—namely, that of the deepest poverty and wretchedness: this is one of the chiefest pains that it suffers in this purgation. For it feels within itself a profound emptiness and impoverishment of three kinds of good, which are ordained for the pleasure of the soul which are the temporal, the natural and the spiritual; and finds itself set in the midst of the evils contrary to these, namely, miseries of imperfection, aridity and emptiness of the apprehensions of the faculties and abandonment of the spirit in darkness. Inasmuch as God here purges the soul according to the substance of its sense and spirit, and according to the interior and exterior faculties, the soul must needs be in all its parts reduced to a state of emptiness, poverty and abandonment and must be left dry and empty and in darkness. For the sensual part is purified in aridity, the faculties are purified in the emptiness of their perceptions and the spirit is purified in thick darkness.

This is the hardest part to explain as well as understand-the real darkness of the Dark Night. It is as if all one knew and understood before count as nothing. The aridity of the sensual means that nothing or few things bring one pleasure. In fact, life is devoid of pleasure. 

The faculties which are memory, the intellect and will no longer are trustworthy resources and one relies less and less on memory and intellect. The heart is also pained in a cloud of abandonment.

But none of this matters, as God is in control of the process of cleansing the soul, the heart, the mind.

5. All this God brings to pass by means of this dark contemplation; wherein the soul not only suffers this emptiness and the suspension of these natural supports and perceptions, which is a most afflictive suffering (as if a man were suspended or held in the air so that he could not breathe), but likewise He is purging the soul, annihilating it, emptying it or consuming in it (even as fire consumes the mouldiness and the rust of metal) all the affections and imperfect habits which it has contracted in its whole life. Since these are deeply rooted in the substance of the soul, it is wont to suffer great undoings and inward torment, besides the said poverty and emptiness, natural and spiritual, so that there may here be fulfilled that passage from Ezechiel which says: ‘Heap together the bones and I will burn them in the fire; the flesh shall be consumed and the whole composition shall be burned and the bones shall be destroyed.’121 

Sometimes one feels nothing, the nada. Sometimes waves of pain of loss rush through one. The losses are the old ways of thinking and doing. All that one did on one's own must be destroyed so that the pure will of God may be done. Undoing is a good word, and at this time, some people see the sins of their past, of their youth and need to confess those things one did not see the seriousness at the time. A good confessor is a necessity-one who understands this process. I know one in Surrey and one in Dublin.

Herein is understood the pain which is suffered in the emptiness and poverty of the substance of the soul both in sense and in spirit. And concerning this he then says: ’set it also empty upon the coals, that its metal may become hot and molten, and its uncleanness may be destroyed within it, and its rust may be consumed.’122 Herein is described the grave suffering which the soul here endures in the purgation of the fire of this contemplation, for the Prophet says here that, in order for the rust of the affections which are within the soul to be purified and destroyed, it is needful that, in a certain manner, the soul itself should be annihilated and destroyed, since these passions and imperfections have become natural to it.

Strong words and scary, as none of us want to be annihilated. But, it is the sin and tendencies to sin which are annihilated. Desires for things and people other than God are also destroyed, until one only desires God and His Will.

6. Wherefore, because the soul is purified in this furnace like gold in a crucible, as says the Wise Man,123 it is conscious of this complete undoing of itself in its very substance, together with the direst poverty, wherein it is, as it were, nearing its end, as may be seen by that which David says of himself in this respect, in these words: ’save me, Lord (he cries to God), for the waters have come in even unto my soul; I am made fast in the mire of the deep and there is no place where I can stand; I am come into the depth of the sea and a tempest hath overwhelmed me; I have laboured crying, my throat has become hoarse, mine eyes have failed whilst I hope in my God.’124 Here God greatly humbles the soul in order that He may afterwards greatly exalt it; and if He ordained not that, when these feelings arise within the soul, they should speedily be stilled, it would die in a very short space; but there are only occasional periods when it is conscious of their greatest intensity. 

Thankfully, this is true, otherwise we would die-this level of intensity would overwhelm one.

At times, however, they are so keen that the soul seems to be seeing hell and perdition opened. Of such are they that in truth go down alive into hell, being purged here on earth in the same manner as there, since this purgation is that which would have to be accomplished there. And thus the soul that passes through this either enters not that place125 at all, or tarries there but for a very short time; for one hour of purgation here is more profitable than are many there.

St. Teresa of Avila was shown her place in hell if she did not follow God's Will in the renewal of the Carmelites. She became horrified, but begged for God's grace.

These visions are not night terrors but a reality of the loss of God, which can happen so easily.

Indeed, one must beg for grace.

To be continued....