The Mystery of Love

As we have learned from the philosophers, and from the Pope Emeritus, there are different kinds of love. You may want to go back and look at my comments on Deus Caritas Est and Caritas in Veritate.

Recently, I have been observing middle-aged and even older friends experiencing a renewal of love in their good marriages. This has been a revelation to me, as I have not seen such rediscoveries of bridal love among couples for a long time. Sometimes, one sees this renewal in very old couples, like my parents, who at 92 and 87, love and respect each other openly more than ever before in their long marriage of 67 years.

Perhaps, just perhaps, it takes a long time for couples to rediscover that first love, after years of trials, tribulations, sufferings, illness, financial difficulties, problems with children and so on. These episodes, and, indeed, crises, either bring a couple closer together, or separate them forever. A couple must face suffering together, no longer looking merely at each other, but at the day that life has brought them, the struggle they must face together to overcome successfully.

I have witnessed women truly becoming helpmates, as God created a wife to be--a servant who is cherished and respected above all other women on earth. I have seen men become real protectors and spiritual leaders.

But, the real key to this rediscovery of bridal love must be the central love of God, the finding of the God Within, the awareness of the Indwelling of the Trinity in ones' self and in one's mate.

When a person finally gets in touch with the Trinity Who dwells within, life and love bubble up in a new fountain of grace. When both the man and wife discover God within, the chemistry becomes almost magical. This spiritual awareness in the couple is the great mystery of love--finally, the man and the woman have become truly one as God intended.

When God becomes the heart of the marriage, the heart of both hearts, bridal love is renewed.

For those who keep faithful to their marriage contract, this bridal love will happen if they keep God's commandments, especially the first one.

No other gods can replace God in a marriage, neither money, or status, or success, or possessions, or even children. The couple become one when God is first in each of their hearts, minds, imaginations, memories and wills.

This type of love is only possible when the couple share sanctifying grace. This type of love is only possible when the couple is traveling together towards God, attempting to bring each other to heaven, to the fullness of life in God.

And, this is only possible when love transcends all else, becoming, truly, agape love.

Only a man and a woman can become one in Christ.

Only a man and a woman can experience the renewal of bridal love.

Only in and with God can this bridal love occur, that first love, which renews itself in Christ until death parts the couple.

But, this love lasts as that of brother and sister in Christ in heaven, the real love of heaven, agape love.

Sacrificial love is another name for bridal love. And, yes, it is passionate, not only in the body, but in the soul. Zeal for each other's salvation marks this good love.

Those who experience this mystery of love renewed bring life into the Church in a way others cannot. This is the gift of true marriage to the Church-marriage in Christ, marriage according to God's plan.

I have never experienced living with a husband for years and years and coming to this renewal of mutual bridal love. But, I do understand and experience the bridal love for Christ, as His bride, as a single person, who has been blessed with such graces to know that Christ loves me eternally in a special way. He loves me as a woman in a unique contract of commitment and service where He leads me.

Singles can experience bridal love in one way-through their total giving of themselves to God directly, and not through another person. This is our call. It is another way to the discovery of the God within, the Indwelling of the Trinity.

God never denies love. He shapes all holy loves to His will. That is the mystery of love.

Being in Eastertide Is Down and Dirty

From today's First Reading:

Acts 14:19-28New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition 

19 But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. Then they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. 20 But when the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went into the city. The next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.

The Return to Antioch in Syria

21 After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, then on to Iconium and Antioch. 22 There they strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, “It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.” 23 And after they had appointed elders for them in each church, with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe.

24 Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. 25 When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. 26 From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work[a] that they had completed. 27 When they arrived, they called the church together and related all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles. 28 And they stayed there with the disciples for some time.

Note that the great Apostle of the Gentiles just got up out of the dirt and carried on. He kept going despite horrible ordeals. Again and again, he and his fellow workers got up and kept preaching, teaching, setting up liturgies, moving on.  He opened the door of faith for the Gentiles.

We are to open the door of Faith. 


We are an Easter People, a community of the Resurrected Christ, Who "trampled death by death" and "led the captives out of prison"

However, many of us do not feel release from the pains of many prisons. With the increasing evil revealed in even the msm, one may feel overwhelmed with negativity and the proliferation of sin.

But, Christ has overcome evil and He has overcome death. However, some of us wear death in our souls from sin, from sins against us, from daily, almost constant persecution and the various consequences of sin in the larger society.

McDonald's, were I sit daily, and write to my Dear Readers, has a motto here in this state, "Your lovin'--Their healing." I assume the advertisers mean to state that a mom and dad who takes their kid or kids to Macs will be feeding them good food and helping charities at the same time.

Some of the billions of the money earned through places like this little outlet, goes to houses for medical treatment for children. A drop in the bucket... And, I am sure the vast majority of people who come here for coffee and a muffin, or the dollar menu actually care if any of the money goes to charity.

This type of charity, which is another word for love, is not the type of charity God, the Resurrected One, demands of us daily. Love cannot be compartmentalized. It cannot be pushed off to be done by others. We need, absolutely, to be involved with others who have needs.

Lately, I have noticed that most people do not want to get involved with the needy, or, only at a great distance. I see this in my own life, but then, I understand that people are limited in love, just as I am, and that we have to be pulled, even pushed out of our comfort zones.

Our charity must be direct, involved, "down and dirty" as Christ got down and dirty walking this earth created for happiness and perfection and not for sin.

Sin was mankind's idea, not God's.

When Christ appeared in His Resurrected Body, He wore and still wears for all time, the wounds from His Crucifixion.

Have you meditated on this fact? The Glorified Body of Christ bears all the major wounds-the marks on the Hands, the spear-thrust wound in the Side, the holes in the Feet.

Recently, a priest reminded me that the wounds I wear from trials, poverty, illness, especially is done for mortification and for the glory of God, will be part of my resurrected, glorified body.

Amazing--the wounds we carry will be part of our glory, and how these wounds will be manifested is a mystery.

But, one can guess. If one has been hated, perhaps one will emanate great love. If one has been poor, perhaps one will be adorned like a princess. If one has been calumniated, a great humility will be obvious.

Mary, Our Mother, shares in all the greatest of virtues, from her Immaculate Conception to her days with John in Ephesus.

What were those long days like as she waited for God to call her home?

She was in constant union with the Trinity.

Again and again, I return to this mystery of the Indwelling of the Trinity. The Trinity dwells within all who are in sanctifying grace.

St. Teresa of Avila's birthday is being celebrated by Carmelites and those of us who love her this year. She was born in 1515. More than many saints, she shared what it means to experience the Indwelling of the Trinity.

Here is one of her notes on this fact, also referred to by St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine.

The spirit becomes enkindled and is illumined as it were, by a cloud of the greatest brightness. It sees these Three Persons, individually, and yet, by a wonderful kind of knowledge which is given to it, the soul realizes that most certainly and truly all these three Persons are one Substance and one Power and one Knowledge and one God alone; so that what we hold by faith the soul may be aid here to grasp by sight, although nothing is seen by the eyes, either of the body or of the soul, for it is no ordinary vision.

As Garrigou-Lagrange, who refers to this teaching of St. Teresa notes, this awareness comes after the Dark Night and when one is entering the Illumination State.

Even some great saints, such as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, did not experience the awareness of the Indwelling of the Trinity until the very end of her life.

That some saints live in this awareness has been made clear by their writings-I think of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity. I shall share more of her insights later this week.

While one is walking with God, one must keep in mind that although the lives of the saints are useful guides, God calls each one of us in a unique manner.

There is only one Thomas Aquinas, only one Teresa of Avila, only one Joseph of Cupertino, only one Mary of Egypt.

However, the universal truth of the Indwelling of the Trinity may be shared by all the baptized who are in sanctifying grace.

An exploration of the Indwelling of the Trinity will be my theme this week on this blog.

Busy Day = Short Post on Knowledge of Divine Things Twenty-Nine Caritas in Veritate Four

Today, I worked with a maintenance person who was taking out old skirting boards and putting in new ones; then, I cleaned the entire house after he left. After that, I showed the house to someone who was interested.

Also, I did some spiritual direction and finish cleaning the patio, which I stated yesterday by raking leaves and pruning the rose bush. I also did my regular prayers and ordered groceries, as a reader sent me a gift card to buy food, (thankyou, R.).

In other words, I did not have time to work on Caritas in Vertitate, but I shall tomorrow. Let me just quote this section, showing the great need for Catholics to regain a foothold in the larger society, a foothold which they have removed in order to pursue either American values, which are not those of the saint necessarily or the values of certain "isms". The problem is that Catholics do not know how to love, or to think or to believe in an objective manner. Truth must be approached in faithfulness and with rigor.

9. Love in truth — caritas in veritate — is a great challenge for the Church in a world that is becoming progressively and pervasively globalized. The risk for our time is that the de facto interdependence of people and nations is not matched by ethical interaction of consciences and minds that would give rise to truly human development. Only in charity, illumined by the light of reason and faith, is it possible to pursue development goals that possess a more humane and humanizing value. The sharing of goods and resources, from which authentic development proceeds, is not guaranteed by merely technical progress and relationships of utility, but by the potential of love that overcomes evil with good (cf. Rom 12:21), opening up the path towards reciprocity of consciences and liberties.

The Church does not have technical solutions to offer[10] and does not claim “to interfere in any way in the politics of States.”[11]She does, however, have a mission of truth to accomplish, in every time and circumstance, for a society that is attuned to man, to his dignity, to his vocation. Without truth, it is easy to fall into an empiricist and sceptical view of life, incapable of rising to the level of praxis because of a lack of interest in grasping the values — sometimes even the meanings — with which to judge and direct it. Fidelity to man requires fidelity to the truth, which alone is the guarantee of freedom (cf. Jn 8:32) and of the possibility of integral human development. For this reason the Church searches for truth, proclaims it tirelessly and recognizes it wherever it is manifested. This mission of truth is something that the Church can never renounce. Her social doctrine is a particular dimension of this proclamation: it is a service to the truth which sets us free. Open to the truth, from whichever branch of knowledge it comes, the Church's social doctrine receives it, assembles into a unity the fragments in which it is often found, and mediates it within the constantly changing life-patterns of the society of peoples and nations[12].

Knowledge of Divine Things Twenty-Eight Caritas in Veritate Three

For those who have not read the long series on grace and free will, please do so. Such basic teachings are necessary for understanding some of the encyclicals.

As I have noted, knowledge leads to praxis. And, we are responsible for cooperating with the graces given to us daily in order to learn, to know.

Here is the Pope Emeritus again:

5. Charity is love received and given. It is “grace” (cháris). Its source is the wellspring of the Father's love for the Son, in the Holy Spirit. Love comes down to us from the Son. It is creative love, through which we have our being; it is redemptive love, through which we are recreated. Love is revealed and made present by Christ (cf. Jn 13:1) and “poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5). As the objects of God's love, men and women become subjects of charity, they are called to make themselves instruments of grace, so as to pour forth God's charity and to weave networks of charity.

All baptized persons are given the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity in baptism. These virtues need to be cultivated through the other virtues, prayer and study. (See my posts on virtues and virtue training). The above phrase approves us and condemns us, "As the objects of God's love, men and women become subjects of charity, they are called to make themselves instruments of grace, so as to pour forth God's charity and to weave networks of charity."

God has loved us first, we respond, and make ourselves, through free will, into "instruments of grace" for others. The weakness of the Church, (see other posts as well on this subject), is that the laity and clergy alike for the most part, indeed, the majority, do not cooperate with charity and fall into self-seeking egotism.

This dynamic of charity received and given is what gives rise to the Church's social teaching, which is caritas in veritate in re sociali: the proclamation of the truth of Christ's love in society. This doctrine is a service to charity, but its locus is truth. Truth preserves and expresses charity's power to liberate in the ever-changing events of history. It is at the same time the truth of faith and of reason, both in the distinction and also in the convergence of those two cognitive fields. 

All isms, all ideologies have a philosophy behind the actions seen in history, If you remember the Gramsci posts, you will see how his view of history clashed with the Catholic view. We, as Catholics, have an anti-socialist view of history and society. We believe in the individual love of each person reaching out to other persons and individuals.

Faith and reason must move towards both the renewal of the person and the renewal of society through love, not isms.

Development, social well-being, the search for a satisfactory solution to the grave socio-economic problems besetting humanity, all need this truth. What they need even more is that this truth should be loved and demonstrated. Without truth, without trust and love for what is true, there is no social conscience and responsibility, and social action ends up serving private interests and the logic of power, resulting in social fragmentation, especially in a globalized society at difficult times like the present.

Would that every cardinal, bishop and priest truly believed this. We have so many Marxists and socialists in the Church, such condemned societal philosophies spoken even from the pulpit, that people no longer believe in charity.

The one world government to come, and any totalitarian state feeds on the destruction of individual charity. Social fragmentation allows tyrants to take over.

Benedict is clear on these points.

 “Caritas in veritate” is the principle around which the Church's social doctrine turns, a principle that takes on practical form in the criteria that govern moral action. I would like to consider two of these in particular, of special relevance to the commitment to development in an increasingly globalized society: justice and the common good.

Shades of Leo XIII! Charity goes beyond justice. None of this Victorian "deserving poor" mythology, or the ideology that all people should have the same things and wealth. There is a hatred of the poor in the States but also a hatred of the rich....an attitude ripe for tyrannical government. This envy of the rich and despising of the poor are both contrary to the Gospel.

First of all, justice. Ubi societas, ibi ius: every society draws up its own system of justice. Charity goes beyond justice, because to love is to give, to offer what is “mine” to the other; but it never lacks justice, which prompts us to give the other what is “his”, what is due to him by reason of his being or his acting. I cannot “give” what is mine to the other, without first giving him what pertains to him in justice. If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them. Not only is justice not extraneous to charity, not only is it not an alternative or parallel path to charity: justice is inseparable from charity[1], and intrinsic to it. Justice is the primary way of charity or, in Paul VI's words, “the minimum measure” of it[2], an integral part of the love “in deed and in truth” (1 Jn 3:18), to which Saint John exhorts us. On the one hand, charity demands justice: recognition and respect for the legitimate rights of individuals and peoples. It strives to build the earthly city according to law and justice. 

Would that Catholics were so holy as to transform the City of Man into the City of God.

On the other hand, charity transcends justice and completes it in the logic of giving and forgiving[3]. The earthly city is promoted not merely by relationships of rights and duties, but to an even greater and more fundamental extent by relationships of gratuitousness, mercy and communion. Charity always manifests God's love in human relationships as well, it gives theological and salvific value to all commitment for justice in the world.

Just a warning to those fuzzy Catholics in the Church--Revelation and Tradition, as backed up by philosophy and theology, must be part of the implementation of both justice and charity.

to be continued....

Knowledge of Divine Things Twenty-Seven Caritas in Veritate Two

3. Through this close link with truth, charity can be recognized as an authentic expression of humanity and as an element of fundamental importance in human relations, including those of a public nature. Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity. That light is both the light of reason and the light of faith, through which the intellect attains to the natural and supernatural truth of charity: it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion. Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite. Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content, and of a fideism that deprives it of human and universal breathing-space. In the truth, charity reflects the personal yet public dimension of faith in the God of the Bible, who is both Agápe and Lógos: Charity and Truth, Love and Word.

A few weeks ago, I was trying to explain to someone how sentimentality was a sin of inauthentic love.  Sentimentality is a false love without truth, without reason and only sensual feelings. With the use of reason and the intellect, one can love in truth.

This is the huge problem of some of the members of the synod who want a love, an acceptance, an inclusion without truth. This is a type of sentimentality towards sinners which does not demand change, metanoia, repentance or reparation. Reason and faith show us that subjectivity which is false love. With mere emotions and opinions, people lack the framework of sacrificial love, which is the only true love.

Emotionalism is "all about me" and not about the other person's good. 

Christ, the Word of God, the Logos, is Agape, the True Love of selflessness.

Faith without reasons destroys love, making it subjective and not objective. Our reference in true love is always Christ, not ourselves.

The "public dimension" is revealed in the authentic human being who has not separated himself into a private life and a public life. This authentic type of life is the integrated life of the saint, who is consumed with love of Christ and neighbor.

to be continued....

Knowledge of Divine Things Twenty-Six Caritas in Veritate One

I cannot do justice to the end of Fides et Ratio, but you all can read it yourselves. I want to move on to Caritas in Veritate, because of circumstances with time.

Again, I may not have the Internet much longer....

The entire theme of the then Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical is that love is in truth an truth is in love.

Simple, but not really.

What this encyclical has to do with faith and reason will become clear as I move along in the text.

Here is part of the preamble or introduction.

All people feel the interior impulse to love authentically: love and truth never abandon them completely, because these are the vocation planted by God in the heart and mind of every human person. The search for love and truth is purified and liberated by Jesus Christ from the impoverishment that our humanity brings to it, and he reveals to us in all its fullness the initiative of love and the plan for true life that God has prepared for us. 

Typical Benedict, is that he gets to the pith of the matter immediately. All of us want love and all of us deep down inside, as humans, wnat truth. But this desire and journey have to be purified, (yes! perfection again) and freed by the intiative and salvation which comes through Christ alone.

In Christ, charity in truth becomes the Face of his Person, a vocation for us to love our brothers and sisters in the truth of his plan. Indeed, he himself is the Truth (cf. Jn 14:6).

What a packed sentence: only in Christ can we love first Him, as a Person, and then all others. Christ is truth.

This seeking is an intellectual pursuit, btw, and not merely emotional. In fact, when searching for the Truth, Who is a Person, we must be prepared for a ruthlessness of seeing ourselves as we really are.

Charity is love in Christ, not some gooey emotional feeling. Remember, love is in the will.

2. Charity is at the heart of the Church's social doctrine. Every responsibility and every commitment spelt out by that doctrine is derived from charity which, according to the teaching of Jesus, is the synthesis of the entire Law (cf. Mt 22:36- 40). It gives real substance to the personal relationship with God and with neighbour; it is the principle not only of micro-relationships (with friends, with family members or within small groups) but also of macro-relationships (social, economic and political ones). For the Church, instructed by the Gospel, charity is everything because, as Saint John teaches (cf. 1 Jn 4:8, 16) and as I recalled in my first Encyclical Letter, “God is love” (Deus Caritas Est): everything has its origin in God's love, everything is shaped by it, everything is directed towards it. Love is God's greatest gift to humanity, it is his promise and our hope.

Two years ago, I walked you through Deus Caritas Est. Some of you may have time to go back and review those posts.

All commitment comes from charity. All personal relationships which are good and true are based on charity.  We start with the small groups around us and spread out this detached love to all.

Love orders all relationships, and is the great gift of God. Yes, we receive faith and hope through God's love for us. But, because this love is in the will, one must always see it as connected with truth, even in the market place. There is, simply, no real charity without truth. As the Pope Emeritus points out here, relativism destroys charity, as it becomes disconnected with truth.

I am aware of the ways in which charity has been and continues to be misconstrued and emptied of meaning, with the consequent risk of being misinterpreted, detached from ethical living and, in any event, undervalued. In the social, juridical, cultural, political and economic fields — the contexts, in other words, that are most exposed to this danger — it is easily dismissed as irrelevant for interpreting and giving direction to moral responsibility. Hence the need to link charity with truth not only in the sequence, pointed out by Saint Paul, of veritas in caritate (Eph 4:15), but also in the inverse and complementary sequence of caritas in veritate. Truth needs to be sought, found and expressed within the “economy” of charity, but charity in its turn needs to be understood, confirmed and practised in the light of truth. In this way, not only do we do a service to charity enlightened by truth, but we also help give credibility to truth, demonstrating its persuasive and authenticating power in the practical setting of social living. This is a matter of no small account today, in a social and cultural context which relativizes truth, often paying little heed to it and showing increasing reluctance to acknowledge its existence.

to be continued...

VIP Post Coming Up Tomorrow

There are smoking timebombs in the Church about the Holy Spirit inspiring the will.

No, no, no.

The Holy Spirit inspires the intellect and the intellect chooses

God manifests Himself as truth in the intellect. The virtues of faith and hope are intellectual virtues.

They have to do with truth.

They are manifested through the will which exemplifies faith and hope in love.

CARITAS IN VERITATE...truth in love.

The danger is now presently diabolical forces poisoning the intellect talking about the Holy Spirit taking over our wills.

NO! When our decision conforms with the Holy Spirit, love is seen.

The Holy Spirit does not take us over like puppets.

The Charismatics do this all the time.

Heresy and dangerous.

This leads to the idea that the majority is always right. If God wanted something, it happens.

God's consequent will is where we have blocked God and denied His grace.

God's antecedent will is that all will be saved and all things will be good. But, because of the sacredness of our free will, the sanctity of free will allows for evil.

The sanctity of the will is based on the premise that we are only free to do good.

By doing good, we wish good, we manifest our wills in love. That is the definition of love is to will good.

Love is in the will.

I know this personally.

Friendship in the Lord

Many years ago, about 1974 to be exact, I remember reading a book by Father Paul Hinnebusch, Friendship in the Lord.

This book is now out-of-print. However, as I was in a lay community for seven years, I learned what this meant from experience and not merely from a book. I think the confusion about lay communities stems from the fact that people have never seen one or read about such.

The Anabaptists, of course, have communities, such as the Bruderhof, and the various Amish and Mennonite communities. These Protestants began their movements as mostly agrarian groups, purposefully separated from urban life, and from the evils surrounding their worlds, such as the compromises made by the Lutheran bishops under Nazism.

Catholic communities, and, indeed, the first communities mentioned in Acts, were urban. It was not until the fall of the Roman Empire that the Church moved out into the countryside. This movement out of the cities, a Catholic Diaspora, helped spread the Gospel, and created the monastic orders, specifically Benedictinism. Recall that St. Benedict's order grew out of the decay following the lack of order after the fall of Rome. His own father was a governor, as the local governments continued using Roman law and order, when possible, even after Rome was ruined.

The combination of law, order and Catholicism created new communities, in addition to the urban ones. It was never the intention of the communities, as seen working in Acts, to isolate themselves from the great cities of the time. In fact, if one also remembers the churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation, one sees that these seven churches were found in the largest cities in the Middle East, especially in the Levant, at the time.

Urban life now seems to be horribly anti-communal, and the suburban life-style, which I never lived, preferring to live in cities, or in towns or villages, dictates against communal life.

I have seen neighborhoods here in New Jersey full of McMansions and no sidewalks. Bedroom commuter neighborhoods by definition are anti-communal.

The strip malls I see here are also anti-communal. One parks a car in front of a store, shops and leaves. There is no place for gathering or even sitting down with friends.

Perhaps this is one reason I love Europe as the smaller villages have community still, and the cities are built on the old communal squares or gathering places. One sees one's friends by walking to church, for example.

Urban sprawl kills communities which existed in older times. For those who are younger than I am, the memory of community simply is not there in the imagination.

We lived in Catholic ghettos, or with other Protestant families who were still having children. People were in each others' houses. Of course, the inflation which hit America in the late 1970s, forced some women to have to work instead of being stay-at-home moms if a certain lifestyle was desired, In my own married life, we chose a simpler lifestyle on purpose in order for me to stay at home and home school.

Such are the choices people make.

However, the ideal of friendship in the Lord, which is found in real communities, seems a dream to many Catholics. Friendship takes time and detachment, and is not based on false, societal class structures, but on the sharing of resources and talents.

Many of us in the community movement in the States now so long ago learned how to have happy, prayerful families. Single people met like-minded single people, which created good marriages based on Godliness and not modern disorders of sex and false romance.

To be in a community meant that those who chose to do so had spiritual direction on a regular basis, and also, the teaching of how to become a servant. In fact, our community had something called "servant school". Dying to self, like those who lived in large families in the past experienced, became part of daily life.

Friendship in the Lord means first of all that one has a relationship with Christ which can be shared with others. and that one wants to live for and in Christ, building the Kingdom of God and not the Kingdom of Man.

Years ago, I had the delight in one college in which I was an instructor, to teach St. Augustine's City of God. This book should be read by all Catholics, and if God allows me some stability, perhaps I can share some of my notes, still floating around my head, with my readers here. At the time I was teaching this book, in the early 2000s, most of my friends were involved in the pro-life movement. Some were even in "rescue".  These people met at each other's houses, including mine, and prayed together, discussing pro-life issues, and the ministries coming out of the concern for pro-life issues.

This group was a small community. We shared dinners, were in each others' houses, and helped each other sharing talents. I was working and homeschooling, and out of this group, I tutored a girl with special needs, whose foster-mother needed help. And, so on.

Out of this group, came homeschooling sharing of talents as well. Many of those involved went to the local TLM even before the Summorum Pontificum.

The group broke up as some of us had to move away for other jobs, one key person moving to California and one going into a convent. However, like my earlier community experience, it was clear that working for the Kingdom of God formed the center of our focus.

Community will be essential in the days which are coming upon us quickly. Those who are strong need to help those who are weak. Those who are weak need to grow and learn to trust in Divine Providence more directly, more intensely.

When I encouraged readers a long time ago to pod, I was hoping that some would see the immediate need for such movements towards community. The time is coming quickly when people will not be able to move into neighborhoods with other Catholics. The time is coming quickly when the isolation of surburbia will become a real prison.

Too many people tell me that they would move into pods but that their spouses do not agree. These couples need to pray together so that one mind can be found on these issues. Women need to learn obedience to their husbands, if their husbands want to take the lead in the formation of community.

Perhaps because my generation came out of big families, where we learned how to share from little on, it was easier than those who have grown up with their own private bedrooms and all the luxuries of middle-class income families. I do not know if that is a problem for some-giving up "individualism" for the sake of the Kingdom.

There is no doubt that the Church grew in persecution because of the communities. That the Holy Spirit left us traces of this history in the Acts of the Apostles proves the importance of communal life.

To be wholly human, one must learn to have friendships in the Lord.

Part One...to be continued

Catholic Love-Romantic Love-Musings

The Jews and Greeks seem to be the first people to create an ideal of Romantic Love, as seen in the Song of Songs and Greek poetry.

Other peoples, and I confine my discussion to the West, did not have this ideal, which grew into the cult of Romance one sees in French history, literature, and music, spilling into England early in the Middle Ages.

The ideal of courtly love is missing among many peoples. I am not going to point to various groupings, but one can make the connections one's self.

A brilliant friend of mine noted that the secular humanists align themselves with others who do not understand romantic love, or agape, Christian love.


Here are two quotations from the CCC from St. Basil and St. Augustine:

Part 3: Life in Christ 1828-1829

"The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the spiritual freedom of the Children of God. He no longer stands before God as a slave, in servile fear, or as mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who "first loved us."

1829

"Love is itself the fulfillment of all are works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest. "

Readers can go back into my archives and look at the commentaries on the Pope Emeritus's encyclical on love.

The point of this post is that without an understand that God is Love, some people either secularists, or those from other man-made religions, cannot move towards repentance, conversion and a life of sacrificial love.

Secularists see this type of life as perverted, as one atheist professor at a major Catholic university told me.

He said bluntly that any type of sacrificial love was unnatural and to be discouraged, choosing instead a like of hedonism. His view is that Christ's message is actually dangerous.

It is dangerous. This message creates martyrs. This message of love creates heroes.

Now, back to Romantic Love.

Without a sense that we are all children of God through baptism and united as such and without the idea that the goal of life is living in love, a person's viewpoint of the world becomes one of the necessity for power and violence.

A brilliant friend of mine, an "Arab expert", taught the religion and language of those areas for years, and spent a long time in the Middle East. Recently, he wrote this to me,

I remember that many of the Iraqis who were not overt "religious people" were trying to understand romantic love. They loved romantic novels and stories about falling in love because it is something that Islam could not give them. Islam gave them a sadistic orgiastic culture. The consciences of some revolted against this and this is something in natural law that tells them that something is wrong. Islam and Secularism are prisons of desperation.

It is interesting that the Hindus have a sense of Romantic Love, as seen in Bollywood stories.

The understanding that all women deserve love and honor is foreign to some seculars and others.

Of course, the love the Church has for Our Lady Mary fed into the cult of Romantic Love. Mary became the knights' "Lady".

To be continued...

Perfection Series VIII Part XVII Raissa on A Roll

I could call this post, "Even the desert is a place".

Several significant lines from Raissa's Journal seem to fit into the ongoing discussion on perfection.

The first entry relates to the post earlier on philosophy and the training of the intellect. Raissa makes it clear that now is the time (1919) for the Faith to be defended by the Intellect. 

And, it is now.

Like the Benedictines, she makes the connection between the pursuit of the love of Truth, the love of God, and study.

Obedience to God in the Faith must be rational. Raissa quotes Pascal, "Submission and use of reason, in which true Christianity consists."

Who among Catholics know this, believe this? I hope my readers have come to this, if they did not know it already.

What we witnessed recently in the Synod were anti-intellectualism, the lack of reason, and the lack of obedience to Church teaching. 

Here is Raissa in her own words: Truth is the rule of the intellect and of the will, it has an absolute and legitimate power over the whole man. Not to follow the truth which the intellect shows us is to disobey God; for the intellect is, in us, a certain similitude of the uncreated light. (St. Thomas).

Then, she writes something which I could have written if I were more intelligent, for this is my experience. God meets me in my intellect and always has.

I remember a day in Bristol, when I was studying and teaching at the University, when I was working on the poetry of David Jones. I can remember the moment as if it happened yesterday.

Sitting at my desk in Wills Hall, facing west, out the large latticed window, I was struck with Beauty and taken up into the Presence of God. The study of the beauty of the words of poetry brought me directly into contact with Beauty Himself. That the intellectual pursuit for Truth and Beauty leads to God has been known by many. Here is Raissa again....

I give thanks to God who put in my heart such an ardent love of truth when, ignorant of the divine Truth, I lived among skeptics and atheists. That desire which the physical sciences could not satisfy because they are partial, and which modern philosophies completely frustrated by their relativism, was fulfilled by the revelation of Catholic doctrine and of Thomistic philosophy.

Her way was through theology and philosophy. But, she had to endure great suffering as well.

As I sit in bed trying to get warm, because I cannot afford heat, suffering from aches and pains, tendinitis, caused by the cold and pain in old frostbite areas, which hurt in the cold, and having chilblains flare up from the cold, I am struck that Raissa had to suffer while being purified in her intellect and heart. I get headaches from the cold, and pains in my fingers. She experienced many severe illnesses. She was almost constantly ill some years.

Why? Look at the saints who have had to suffer both physical and existential pain. The list is long.

The connection cannot be denied. When I first read her so long ago, I was attracted to her because she suffered, like I do, from very painful sciatica and other illnesses. Today, I had an asthma attack from the cold as well.  I was so disappointed, as my prayers for healing have not been answered. Raissa's illnesses were chronic and many days she had to spend in bed from weakness. Thankfully, I only need a "down day" here and there.

Her suffering was a part of her Dark Night. She admitted that she was in Purgatory for one year, 1918-1919, without consolation, with dryness in prayer, not being moved by sermons, with a shattered soul.

Why suffering must accompany this deep desire for Truth is explained by Raissa in one line.

"It is the sublime but everyday truth of Christianity that suffering united to love works salvation."

This is it....pure and simple. All metaphysical or existential suffering, physical or spiritual suffering, heart or head suffering, when coupled with love, becomes redemptive, not only for us, but for others.

In the past two weeks, when my active contemplation was a chore, dry and hard because I could not concentrate on God or His Attributes, it dawned on me, through a small moment of grace in the Adoration Chapel in Sliema, that this was exactly what God wanted--me to be in the driest of deserts before Him, trusting and loving without images, or any response from that Vulnerable God, who was before me under the Species of The Host.

This is my mortification-active contemplation without results. Raissa explains this as well, "Total abnegation is my path (so badly followed by me). All possible mortification, interior. In fact, it depends entirely on myself to create the 'desert'".

Several days ago, before I read this line as if I were reading it for the first time this morning, I came to the same realization in prayer at Adoration. I had to be content with the desert.

I had to create the desert interiorly, the nothingness of my own self, joined with the via negativa which has been my life. No permanent home, no companionship, no security, no family near me, very few things...which fit into two suitcases.

I knew this in 1985, so long ago, but I fought it over and over and over. To embrace the via negativa is to choose to be in the desert constantly, with aridity of soul and body. I wanted the via affimativa. but one does not choose the way God makes one holy. But, as a poet, a writer, I am plunged into the affirmation of life, of beauty, of symbols and images. That is another suffering, to be torn in one's gifts and ministry in the pursuit of contemplation. To go against one's natural instincts to find the nothing which is all.

But, now I know to rest in the desert. If there are no words, nothing but rocks and sands, I am content.

This is God's Will and once I really accepted it, the peace came like waves in the sea.

This is the peace which passes all understanding, not a peace because one is experiencing goodness, kindness or comfort, but a peace when one is suffering intensely on many fronts, including pain in the heart, including grief.

Create your own desert, in a way similar, to which you have been called by me through St. Catherine of Siena to create the cell in your soul. where you can go.

Now, I understand what was told to me at the beginning of this stay in Malta, that the Garden of Eden is the Garden of Gethsemane-only in pain and suffering can some of us find Love and perfection.

Raissa spoke to me so long ago, but I had to travel many paths to get to the place she found in 1921-the interior desert. She was 38.

Pray that God gives me stability in order to be able to rest in this desert, for even a desert is a place.

Let me close this post with Raissa's words from July 13th, 1921,

To love. To abandon oneself. Nothing else is necessary to sanctification.  No, nothing, not even silence with God if that is rendered impossible by real obstacles, interior or exterior...Love God, love, love. That is the one thing necessary.

to be continued....

Perfection Series VII Part IX Prayers for Adoration

Prayers Before The Blessed Sacrament from Jesus Our Eucharistic Love 

by Father Stefano Minelli: from Chapter Seven

Preparation

Faith

My Lord Jesus Christ, with all my soul I believe that You are really present in the Sacrament of the Altar. I believe it because You have said it — You Whom I adore as Supreme Truth. Addressing You in the sacred Host, I declare with St. Peter: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Adoration

I adore You and acknowledge You as my Creator, Lord, Redeemer, and my Supreme and only Good.

Hope

O Lord, I hope that as You have given Yourself wholly to me in this divine Sacrament, You will exercise Your mercy and grant me the graces I need in order to gain Paradise more easily.

Love

O Lord, I love You with all my heart above all things because You are my infinitely lovable God. Forgive me for having loved You so little up to now. I would like to love You with the ardor of the Seraphims and with the Heart of Mary Immaculate, Your Mother and mine.

For Your sake, O Jesus, I wish to love my neighbor as myself.

Humility

O Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word, and my soul will be healed.

Sorrow

Before approaching You, O Jesus, I ask You once more for the pardon of my sins. You have loved me so much as to die for me, and I have been so evil, and have offended You countless times. Have mercy on me! Forgive me! By Your grace wipe away every smallest stain of sin. I wish to approach You with an angelic purity so that I can worthily receive Thee.

Desire

My God, come into my soul that You may make it holy. My God, come into my heart to purify it. My God, enter my body in order to keep it and so that I will never separate myself from Your love.

Destroy everything You see in me that is unworthy of Your presence and can hinder Your grace and Your love.

(Remember within a few minutes Jesus will be within you. This is the most beautiful and greatest moment of your day.

Be well prepared. Present to Jesus a heart ardent in its love and desire for Him. Be fully aware that you are undeserving of such great favor, and do not go to Communion with your soul stained with mortal sin.

Endeavor to let your Holy Communion be during Holy Mass. But if this is not possible, go ahead and receive Holy Communion outside Mass, so that you will not miss a day without receiving Jesus.

Remember that a fervent Holy Communion 1) preserves and increases sanctifying grace in you, 2) takes away venial sins, 3) protects you from falling into mortal sin, 4) brings you consolation and comfort, with an increase of charity and hope of eternal life.)

Thanksgiving

(As Jesus is now with you, you have become a living tabernacle. Keep recollected and adore your Lord. Express to Him the fullness of your joy in possessing Him. Open your heart to Him and speak to Him with great confidence.)

Prayer

O Jesus, I find myself deeply moved in the presence of Your infinite love. How grateful I am to You! I do not know how to do anything else but repeat: Thank You, O Jesus! What shall I do for You, O Lord, in return for Your Gift?

I hear Your sweet voice repeating to me: “My son, give Me thy heart” (Prov. 23:26). Yes, Lord, I offer You my heart and my soul. I consecrate to You my whole life. I want to belong entirely to You forever.

To Jesus Crucified

Behold, O good and most sweet Jesus, I cast myself upon my knees in Thy sight, and with the most fervent desire of my soul, I pray and beseech Thee that Thou wouldst impress upon my heart lively sentiments of Faith, Hope, and Charity, with true contrition for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment; while with deep affection and grief of soul I ponder within myself and mentally contemplate Thy five most precious wounds, having before my eyes that which David the Prophet spoke of Thee, my good Jesus: “They have pierced My hands and My feet, they have numbered all My bones.” (Our Father, Hail Mary)

Invocations

Soul of Christ, make me holy. Body of Christ, save me. Blood of Christ, inebriate me. Water from the side of Christ, cleanse me. Passion of Christ, strengthen me. O good Jesus, hear me. Within Thy wounds, shelter me. Do not permit me to be separated from Thee. From the wicked enemy defend me. At the hour of my death, call me, and bid me to come to Thee, that with Thy Saints I may praise Thee forever. Amen.

Prayer of Saint Bonaventure

Pierce, O most sweet Lord Jesus Christ, mine inmost soul with the most joyous and healthful wound of Thy love, with true, serene, and most holy apostolic charity, that my soul may ever languish and melt with love and longing for Thee, that it may yearn for Thee and faint for Thy courts, and long to be dissolved and to be with Thee. Grant that my soul may hunger after Thee, the bread of angels, the refreshment of holy souls, our daily and supersubstantial bread, having all sweetness and savor and every delight of taste. Let my heart ever hunger after and feed upon Thee, whom the angels desire to look upon, and may my inmost soul be filled with the sweetness of Thy savor. May it ever thirst after Thee, the fountain of life, the fountain of wisdom and knowledge, the fountain of eternal light, the torrent of pleasure, the richness of the house of God. May it ever compass Thee, seek Thee, find Thee, run to Thee, attain to Thee, meditate upon Thee, speak of Thee, and do all things to the praise and glory of Thy Holy name, with humility and discretion, with love and delight, with readiness and affection, and with perseverance unto the end. Be Thou alone ever my hope and my whole confidence, my riches, my delight, my pleasure and my joy; my rest and tranquility; my peace, my sweetness and my fragrance; my sweet savor, my food and refreshment; my refuge and my help; my wisdom, my portion, my possession and my treasure, in whom may my mind and my heart be ever fixed and firm, and rooted immovably. Amen.

Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas

I give Thee thanks, O holy Lord, Almighty Father, Eternal God, who has vouchsafed, not through any merits of mine, but out of the condescension of Thy great mercy, to nourish me a sinner, thine unworthy servant, with the precious Body and Blood of Thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that this Holy Communion be not to me a condemnation unto punishment, but a saving plea unto forgiveness. May It be unto me the armor of faith and the shield of good purpose. May It cause the emptying out of my vices and the extinction of all concupiscence and lust; an increase of charity and patience, of humility and obedience, and of all virtues. May It be unto me a strong defense against the snares of all my enemies, visible and invisible; the perfect quieting of all my evil impulses both fleshly and spiritual; may It cause me to firmly cleave unto Thee, the one true God; and may It make my death holy and happy. And I pray Thee that Thou wouldst vouchsafe to bring me, a sinner, to that ineffable banquet, where Thou, with Thy Son and Thy Holy Spirit, art to Thy saints true light, fulness of content, eternal joy, gladness without alloy, and perfect happiness. I ask this through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Holy Communion With Mary

(Meditating on the Hail Mary)

Preparation

O holy Virgin, I am about to receive Your Jesus. I wish my heart were like Yours when You became Mother of the Savior at the time of the Annunciation of the Angel.

Hail Mary

I greet You, good Mother. Allow me to unite myself with You to adore Jesus. Lend me Your affections, Your sentiments. Moreover I ask You, in fact, to adore Him for me. Hail, O true Body of Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary! I believe, and I adore You.

Full of grace

You, Mary, were worthy to receive the all-holy God, for You were full of grace from the first moment of Your life. But I am poor and sinful. My evil ways make me unfit to go to Communion. O my Mother, cover me with Your merits and lead me to Jesus.

The Lord is with Thee

The Lord is with Thee, O most Holy Virgin. By Your ardent longing You drew Him down from Heaven into Your heart. Instill also in my heart an ardent longing and an insatiable hunger for Jesus, so that I can truly say, “Come, O my Jesus, I long for You with the heart of Mary, Your Mother and mine.”

Blessed art Thou among women

Blessed art Thou, O Mary, who have never known the remorse that comes from committing sin; for You are free of every kind of sin and imperfection. But I know I have sinned, and I am not sure that I have been sufficiently sorry. Make me understand the evil of my sins and the goodness of God Whom I have offended. I weep for my sins. Present me thus penitent to Your Jesus.

And blessed is the Fruit of Thy womb

Ah, good Mother! What a great gift You have given us in giving us our Savior, Jesus! And behold, He wants to come to me to make me an especially beloved child of Your heart. I go with confidence to receive Him, and I say to Him: “My Jesus, I abandon myself to You. Come to give me strength to serve You faithfully, and the hope of enjoying You forever with Your Mother in Heaven.”

Jesus

Grant, O Mother, that I experience those sentiments that You experienced as You lived in Jesus' company, as You called Him by name. I am now about to receive Him. Allow me to be able to say to Him: “Come, O my Jesus. You will find in me the same welcome that You had from Your Mother on earth. I hope that through Her intercession You will welcome me into Heaven.”

Thanksgiving

Holy Mary, Mother of God

O my Mother, how happy I am to be united with my Jesus! But how do I deserve to have my Lord come down to me? O Mary, who are holy and Immaculate, offer Him worthy thanks for me.

O Thou who from the first perceived the heartbeats of that Jesus Whom I now welcome within me, Thou who loved Him more than all the Saints together have loved Him, and who lived for Him alone when You were on earth, grant that I may now share Your sentiments and Your love.

And Thou, O Jesus, accept the love of Your Mother as though it were my own and do not deny me a tender glance while I also say to Thee with all my heart, “I love Thee.”

Pray for us sinners

Pray for me, O Mary. At this time unite Your prayers to mine. And now that Jesus has come into my heart, ready to grant me all graces, I wish to ask Him above all that I never separate myself from Him by sin. And You, O Mary, preserve me from evil, and be my refuge in temptation.

Now

For now and from now on, beloved Mother, I beg for all the graces that are profitable to my soul. Obtain for me this favor: that I be clothed with the virtues of goodness and meekness and that my life be one of spotless purity.

And at the hour of our death

From now on my prayer, O Jesus, is that I may receive You worthily at the time of my death and that my death may be a holy one. I accept it, when and how You shall send it to me — I welcome it in union with Your sacrifice fulfilled on the Cross. I accept it in order to submit myself to the divine Will, for the glory of God, for my salvation, and for the salvation of souls.

O Sorrowful Virgin, assist me as You have assisted Jesus in His last agony.

“Amen”

“So be it.” O Jesus, here is the word that I want to repeat at every instant, both during my youth and throughout my life. May Thy Will be done always. And all that You provide is the best thing for me, and from now on I accept it and give You thanks. Amen.

Before The Holy Eucharist

The Visit to the Blessed Sacrament

My Lord Jesus Christ, Who, for the love You bear towards men, remain in this Sacrament night and day, filled with compassion and love, waiting, calling, and welcoming all who come to visit Thee: I believe that Thou art present in the Sacrament of the Altar; I adore Thee from the abyss of my nothingness, and I thank Thee for all the graces Thou hast given me, particularly for having given me Thyself in this Sacrament, for having given me Thy Most Holy Mother Mary as my Advocate, and for having called me to visit Thee in this church.

I pay reverence to Thy most loving Heart today, and this for three purposes: first, in thanksgiving for this great Gift; second, to make reparation for all the outrages Thou hast received from all Thy enemies in this Sacrament; third, I intend by this visit to adore Thee in all the places on earth in which Thou art present in this Sacrament, and in which Thou art least honored and most abandoned.

My Jesus, I love Thee with all my heart. I repent of having so often displeased Thy infinite Goodness in the past. I resolve with the help of Thy grace not to offend Thee ever again in the future; and for the present, poor sinner though I be, I consecrate myself wholly to Thee. I renounce and surrender to Thee my whole will, my affections, my desires, and all that belongs to me. From this day forward do whatever You please with me and what belongs to me. I ask and wish only of Thee Thy holy love, final perseverance, and the perfect fulfillment of Thy Will.

I recommend to Thee the souls in Purgatory, especially those most devoted to the Most Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I also recommend to Thee all poor sinners.

O my beloved Savior, I unite all my affections with the affections of Thy most loving Heart, and thus united, I offer them to Thy Eternal Father, and I beg Him in Thy name that for love of Thee He accept them and heed them. Amen.

Spiritual Communion

My Jesus, I believe that You are really present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I love Thee above all things, and I desire to possess Thee within my soul. Since I cannot now receive Thee sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart.

(Make a brief pause, and during it unite yourself with Jesus.)

I embrace Thee as being already there and unite myself wholly to Thee. Never, never permit me to be separated from Thee. Amen.

Visit to the Blessed Virgin Mary

O most holy, Immaculate Virgin and my Mother Mary, to Thee who are the Mother of my Lord, the Queen of the world, the Advocate, the hope, the refuge of sinners, I, who am the most miserable of all sinners, have recourse today. I venerate Thee, O great Queen, and I thank Thee for all the graces Thou hast conferred on me until now, especially for having delivered me from hell, which I have so often deserved. I love Thee, O Most amiable Lady, and because of the love I bear Thee, I promise to serve Thee always and do all in my power to make Thee loved by others. I place in Thee all my hopes; I confide my salvation to Thy care. Accept me as Thy servant, and shelter me under Thy mantle, O Mother of Mercy. And since You are so powerful with God, deliver me from all temptations, or obtain for me the strength to triumph over them until my death.

Of Thee I ask a perfect love of Jesus Christ. From Thee I hope to die a good death. O Mary, my Mother, for the love You bear to God, I beg You to help me always, but especially at the last moment of my life. Leave me not, I beseech Thee, until Thou seest me safe in Heaven, blessing Thee and singing Thy mercies for all eternity. Amen. So I hope. So may it be.

— St. Alphonsus Liguori 

end of Series VII