Manning Against The Modernists

For some time, I have thought that Henry Cardinal Manning should be canonized. He championed the papacy and the Church in difficult times, and almost single-handedly caused the Church to grow to great numbers through his teaching, personal pastoral care, and even fighting with the powers of evil in politics, as well as the Modernists in the Church.

He foresaw all the crumbling of British society we now see because of the watering down of religion in the school system. He prophesied what would happen to an increasingly secular society chasing after entertainment and status.

He rebuked the old guard Catholics who ignored the new Catholic teaching on social justice.

He saw that loyalty to Rome kept the Church united against the growing powers of nationalism.

He stood up for the working class, the poor, the sick.

Against the heresies of national churches separating themselves from Rome, he stood firm.

What has destroyed the status of the Church in both America and in Great Britain has been the heresies of Americanism and Anglicanism.

Without an independent, universal Catholic Church, bishops and priests fall into a parochialism which denies the authority of the pope, and, therefore, the authority of Christ Himself.

Manning saw this clearly.

To me, he is a great leader in the Church against Modernism.

I wish a real Catholic who understands the path of perfection, which Manning sought, would write a definitive biography.

Many one of the young trads would consider doing this.....

"Nothing else is worth our living for...." Obedience and The Will of God

I have been looking at the actual sermons of young Cardinal Manning in his handwriting. His handwriting and mine are so similar, I was taken aback by the comparison.

I am reading "Obedience The Only Reality". It is superb, especially coming from a very young curate.

One of his points is that the great intellectual and reasoning powers we have been given by God to often become separated from the soul, the spiritual part of man. When this happens, Manning clearly states that anxiety, pain, sorrow and "the season of death" face men and women with the abolishing of these gifts they have refused to use.

The only "thing" we actually have in this world is our own spiritual life, which we take into the next world, he writes.

Everything we have done or spoken, states Manning, will either harm or help our spiritual life. He writes, "Of all the encumbrances, goings on of this busy life, of all its deeds and achievements, and possessions, how small a remainder shall be found after that fiery trial has done its work." He is referring to the final judgment, the keen accounting of God of our lives.

Manning asks how shall our works, our thoughts, our imaginations, self-persuasions and other deceits stand up to the sight of God's scrutiny.

The clergyman then goes on to say that the disobedient are condemned already. And, those who take part in the eternal obedience of Christ, the following of the will of God, use the gifts of grace given to them.

Here is another direct quotation: "Nothing else is worth our living for....Obedient or disobedient, we must be real or unreal, unperishable or perishing."

Manning states that the first step in holiness is to see what it is what God's will is for each one of us; then, to abandon everything else.

"What we are is a revelation of His will towards us. Our lot is a reality, the works of our calling are real, as long as they are done as a service to obedience. Within these bounds there is nothing which does not bear upon Eternity....Obedience to the will of God is work of direct and simple consciousness. It is to be wrought in us by its own self-confirming power. It is by doing the will of God, by recognizing it in all the changes of life; by reading it in the course of this troubled world; the Expression of the Divine Mind; by bowing ourselves down before it, it whatsoever guise it might reveal itself; by yielding ourselves in gladness of mind both to do and to suffer it, counting it a holy discipline, and a loving correction of our own willfulness, and by praying Him ever to stay His hand, till the mind of self be abolished from our regenerate being;--by this means it is that we are changed from a shadow of a fleeting life to the abiding realities of the Eternal world, being made partakers of the will of God."

Would that we heard sermons like this today! If you want to read more of this thrilling sermon, go here.
http://www.pitts.emory.edu/collections/mss002/ManningCatholicSermons/ObedienceTheOnlyReality.pdf

to be continued...

The Last Manning Post for Now

Cardinal Manning writes that we can make reparation to the Holy Ghost in three ways. The first is through following His inspirations promptly. Look at the damsel fly, as I add, and see how this creature turns quickly over a stream and changes direction in its flight. So too, we must swiftly respond to grace.

Second, and this is more difficult as it demands a generous heart, we must respond according to the graces and inspirations given, not  with the burying of the talent, but with making more out of what is given.

Third, we must serve the Holy Ghost is complete purity of heart. Now, the Cardinal gives way to achieve this purity, some of which were pointed out to me long ago.

Firstly, “…hunt down and slay your little faults; he that is faithful in that which is the least is faithful also in that which is greater; and they who will hunt down, and slay, and exterminate their little faults, be sure of it, will never willingly commit greater sins.”

Secondly, Manning advises us to do all our “little duties”…”with great exactness”.

The last words from this book on this blog are on the horrible spiritual warfare we are experiencing now and which Manning saw in his day.

I shall end with the same prayer which ends his book.

“O God the Holy Ghost, Whom I have slighted, grieved, resisted from my childhood unto this day, reveal unto me they personality, Thy presence, Thy power. Make me know Thy sevenfold gifts: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude, of knowledge and piety, and of the fear of the Lord; and make me to be of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. O Thou Who art the Spirit of the Father and the Son, O Thou Who are the love of the Father and the Son, O Thou Who baptisest with fire, and sheddest abroad the love of God in our hearts, shed abroad Thy love in my heart. One thing have I desired of the Lord: that will I seek after: not wealth, rank, power, worldly home, worldly happiness, or any worldly good, but one drop of that holy flame, one drop of that heavenly fire, to kindle me and set me on fire with the love of my God.

Let that holy flame burn up and consume in me every spot and soil of the flesh and of the spirit. Purify me sevenfold with the fire of Thy love. Consume me as a holy sacrifice acceptable unto Thee. Kindle me with zeal, melt me with sorrow, that I may live the life and die the death of a fervent penitent.”

Manning Count Down

This is the penultimate post on Manning’s works for now.

I am sorry to leave the work of this great man. I feel a connection to him from my stay at St. Mary of the Angels for three months in 2012. Daily, I worshipped in the Church where Manning himself sometimes came, and in the buildings where the Oblates of St. Charles lived, I lived for a short, but happy time.

The Holy Spirit moves us and others to form our lives. The Holy Ghost is, as Manning teaches us, “the efficient cause of all grace.”

The Holy Ghost raised Christ from the dead. The Holy Ghost came into the Church and into us at Pentecost. And, we need His help now more than ever.

“And as the Holy Ghost is the Creator and Sanctifier of the Church,” writes the Cardinal, “He is also its Guide and its Light.”

Manning quotes many references from St. Paul in this last chapter. I highly suggest a study of St. Paul through Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Romans. Manning decries the loss of the realization among most Catholics that we have the Indwelling of the same Spirit Who raised Christ from the dead and who recreated the world through grace and gifts.

How do we become unconscious of this grand heritage of the life of the Spirit within us?

“…ay, even from your Baptism…the Holy Ghost has been within you; all through your growth, in your childhood, in every age, in all your spiritual life, the Holy Ghost has been with you, springing up as a fountain of grace. You have been encompassed and enveloped by the love of God.”

…

“We have been wasting the grace of God all our life long, and there has been a hand unseen pouring in oil, lest the light of the lamp should die out.”

…

“The Giver of all the sweetness of God is within you, waiting only for you to ask it of Him. He has shed it abroad in your hearts even when you have not asked it…”

Cardinal Manning stares we must do three things. First, we must adore the Holy Spirit as we do the Father and the Son. Second, we must “…have a more lively conception of His presence within us.” Third, “…we must realize and have a perception that He is at all times bearing ‘testimony in our hearts that we are sons of God.’ We must in turn speak with Him, and love Him, and praise Him, and glorify Him, both by inward acts of adoration in our soul and by outward acts of obedience in our lives.”

We must also make reparation to the Holy Spirit for our many sins. I shall continue in one more posting.

Manning at His Best

The chapter on the Beatitudes includes a long section on the need for perfection for priests and bishops. I shall let those two groups of men read that section, rather than comment here.

However, I do want to quote a long section for the laity.

“We have come to the foot of the mountain of Beatitudes, from which the new law of perfection has gone forth to the ends of the earth. We see the companies of the elect going up each in its order. First the poor, wayworn, and footsore; here and there one who on earth was great, and noble, and rich, but poor in spirit, in the great multitude who eat bread in the sweat of their face. Then the meek, noiseless as the flight of doves; then the mourners, with their heads covered, following the Man of Sorrow by the strait, sure road of affliction. After them those that hunger after God in the vehemence of the spirit, speeding upward and saluting no man by the way; next come the merciful, with their hands full of alms, which look like roses.  After them the clean in heart, scaling the mountain like rays that run upward with the speed of lightning; then come the peacemakers in the majesty of calm and joy; and in the rear of all, the soldiers of Jesus, the heralds of the Holy Ghost to a world of sin, which smote them and slew them for their charity.  All these are going upward. Shall we be left behind? Aim higher and higher. Desire the best gifts. Be faithful over the least.  Commit yourself to the guidance of the Spirit of God, for He is Love, and Light, and Power. Ispe perficiet. As He began so He will make perfect.”

How wonderful, how beautiful…

One or two most posts on Manning to come….

Manning Day-The Ending of A Fantastic Journey

Manning continues on the theme of perfection.

In this state, there are two opinions are to whether people still sin venially. The key is “…there is no deliberate affection to anything contrary to the will of God. Temptations resisted are not sins; and the indeliberate adhesion of the mind to that which is deliberately resisted is not a transgression of the law. “

We are all called to this. Manning continues, “All that are saved must be made perfect before they can see the face of God. But all are not called to the same perfection, not to the same degree of perfection, nor by the same way….All are called, but not all to the same office, or grace or reward.”

But, all will be happy in heaven, according to each one’s call.

So, to repeat, what is perfection? “The essential perfection of the soul is the love of God and our neighbour. “

“There is no perfection of charity, humility, poverty of spirit we may not attain. All of you living in the world in trade and business, n the cares and works of home, you may all be united with God in a close and constant union…”

More later…much more tomorrow

I have a long way to go...more Manning on perfection

Perfection involves acting in the life of virtue, exhibiting all the fruits of the Holy Spirit and, eventually, having a character completely formed in the Mind of Christ, which is found in the Beatitudes.

Some people are born with strong characteristics of the Beatitudes. These people are especially graced to maintain their innocence and baptismal purity. Such as the saints like Gemma Galgani and Aloysius Gonzanga. When confirmed, these saints are almost “perfect Christians”. They will suffer the passive perfection and be united to Christ quickly, but not without intense suffering.

We see this pattern in the life of St. Therese, the Little Flower, the saint of love. These young saints have been perfected on a fast track to holiness and illumination, love and unity.

Other saints must strive to conquer their predominant faults. Manning makes the distinction between a “just man, and a holy man, and a perfect man.”

He writes that, “A just man fulfils the law, and gives to every man his due; a holy man is specially united with God; the perfect man is both.”

Can parents understand why it is so important to form their children from little on, helping them create habits of charity and all the virtues, using the baptismal purity to move on to purity of mind and heart as adults?

This is not impossible. Manning notes that, “because truth is the revelation of the mind of God, the intellect is conformed to the divine intelligence.”  

Read the process which is possible for all: “As this sanctifying grace grows in the heart, the intellect and will are conformed to the intelligence and will of God; and this growing conformity prepares both for the operation of the seven gifts. Then holy fear, and piety, and fortitude control, and soften, and strengthen the will; and knowledge and counsel form the practical reason or conscience; and understanding and wisdom enlarge the head and the heart, and unite both with God.”

Manning states, however, that this state is still not perfection.

“There may still be flaws and dents in the heart, mists in the intelligence, twists and crookedness in the will. There may be roots of many faults yet alive; habitual faults and deliberate venial sins.”

One may sin venially out of a knee-jerk reaction learning in childhood, habits which must be broken, but deliberate venial sins, with full knowledge, are more serious sins. Both types must be washed away in the Dark Night.

Manning continues, “The complete circle of charity and of it fertility is not yet expanded. There may be no self-denial, or generosity, or fervour. Such a man may still seek his own things, and not the things which are Jesus Christ’s. He keeps the commandments, but not the counsels. He dos many good things, but he does not spend himself, nor is he willing to be spent for the elect’s sake.”

As Manning notes, these people are good but not perfect. They do good works, but seem wooden and not spontaneous. They have to enter into the passive perfection of the soul, the purgation of self-will, the Dark Night, when all egoism is destroyed because good men judge one as evil, but nothing prospers from the work of one’s hands. ‘…everything goes wrong…all seem to prosper that is evil.”

Such is the way of the saint, those who want to be perfect. “Here is the realm which seems to be the home of those God has forgotten; where His face is never seen, nor a ray of His light ever shines. Let us now read over the Beatitudes: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit;’ Blessed are they that mourn;’ ‘blessed are they that hunger and thirst;’ Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you for justice’ sake.’

As Manning states most neatly—“This is the region not so much of active charity as of passive endurance.”

One suffers in the dark.  Faith, hope and charity need to be used, daily. Those who want to be perfect, must go through this time. “They are learning to suffer without and within; from the world, from enemies, from friends, from Satan, from themselves. They are learning to be patient to be patient as their Divine Master, gentle to all, even the most unworthy; generous to the ungrateful, thankful under the cross, and their will in perfect submission to the will of God.”

As God told me on the Feast of Corpus Christi, “You have a long way to go….”

To be continued…

Books by Cardinal Manning

By the way, Cardinal Manning, besides the two books I have highlighted on this blog, wrote many others.

If anyone would like to find and send me any of these, I would be thrilled to share the contents with you, my dear readers. Here is a partial list of titles:

Miscellanies (two vols.)

Glories of The Sacred Heart

England and Christendom (sounds fascinating and timely)

Dignity and Rights of Labour

Education and Parental Rights

The Centenary of St. Peter and The General Council

The Oecumenical Council and The Infallibility of The Roman Pontiff

The Vatican Council and Its Definitions

Petri Privilegium

The Blessed Sacrament The Centre of Immutable Truth

Sermons on Ecclesiastical Subjects

The Love of Jesus to Penitents

The Temporal Power of The Pope

The Temporal Power of The Pope in Its Political Aspect

Rome and The Revolution

Christ and Antichrist (very timely)

Rome The Capital of Christendom (great!)

The Four Great Evils of The Day (hmmmm-might be timely, indeed)

The Fourfold Sovereignty of God (we need to preach this)

Sin and Its Consequences

Dominus Illuminatio Mea

Confidence in God

Ground of Faith

The Vatican Decrees

More from the book on the Holy Ghost and us later…

Christ in Gethsemane--Perfection Series II; Manning

I shall continue with more Manning tomorrow, but today, let me end with a section found earlier in the section on the fruits of the Holy Ghost.

“…what are the rights of God over you? May He not come and look into your hearts for the fruits of innocence? May He not say, ‘I gave to your soul the graces of baptism and the innocence of a child of God—where are they? I gave to your soul the graces of the Holy Ghost, that you might live according to justice—where are the fruits of justice? I have given to your soul the grace of contrition, that you might repent—where are the fruits of penance? I have given to your soul the grace to know My love, to feel the love that I have for you—where is the return of love for love, where is your generosity? I have heaped upon your soul mercies without number, poured out upon it blessings beyond the heart of man to conceive—where is your spirit of thanksgiving or of praise?’ These are the rights that God has over you. He may justly expect these things from you. See then, the disappointment of God.”

This paragraph reveals to me the suffering of Christ in Gethsemane. He saw His chosen ones, those baptized and those given tremendous graces, turn away from His Love.

Kyrie eleison..

To be continued..

Perfection Series II: Manning and The Sacred Heart

Because of limited access to the Net and because I want to pass this magnificent book on to friend before I move in two weeks, I am aware of the inadequacies regarding the unpacking of Cardinal Manning’s insights.

Moving into the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which I did in the last post, one sees in Manning a deep, deep spirituality, that of a saint.

Let me share a few posts more on the book we have been following together.

On the fruits, as I noted briefly in the last post, some of these pertain to us and our holiness more directly than others.

Modesty, which keeps us temperate and moderate, helps us to do more than merely what is lawful. We move into humility through modesty. Continence, as Manning notes, “.. mean most especially the repressing of the passions,” and again, he points out that such regulation keeps us moderate and disciplined.

“Chastity,” the Cardinal writes, “is the transparent purity of the soul and the custody of the senses, because they are the avenues of the soul by which sin enters.”

Wise words….

Manning moves to the ideal of the sweetness which comes from love the love of God and the love of neighbor. And, Who is our great example but, Christ Himself.

Manning tells us of his own love for the Sacred Heart through these words.

“His hands were always exerting the promptings of His Sacred Heart. And His Sacred Heart He bequeathed to His Church, which is His Mystical Body. The vibration and the pulsation of that Heart of love are felt through Christendom.”

The work of good Catholics contains the working of the Sacred Heart.

“The Sacred Heart of the Incarnate Son of God cast fire upon the earth. And the Christian world kindled and broke forth into all works of charity.”

We all, notes Manning, as baptized Catholics, have a ‘facility of dong right” but this comes from and in the Heart of Christ. The active perfection which is the working of the fruits in the world comes from the heart.

The fruits are “…the acts, internal and external, of the love of God and of our neighbour.”

The fruits point to active perfection as these are all acts. But, Manning reminds us, as do all the saints, perfection is not merely found through actions but through passivity. And in the passivity of the acceptance of suffering, perfection becomes sublime.

“Obedience is perfected in patience.”

“Jesus revealed the perfection of the Sacred Heart always and everywhere, but no-where and at no time, as in the three hours of agony on the Cross. There His deified will was crucified—there His heart and mind were conformed to God by the last conformity of self-oblation and of suffering unto death.”

Manning sums up-“The active perfection is the perfection of the fruits of the Holy Ghost; the passive is the perfection of the Beatitudes”.

To be continued…

Perfection Series II: Manning and Perfection

Manning and the Passive Perfection

All I can say of this section is “wow”! Read on…

Manning tells us that the Beatitudes are a foretaste of the happiness of heaven.

“Therefore such acts are called Beatitudes because they beatify the soul even here in this life of warfare. They constitute also the highest perfection of the saints—the closest conformity to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”

So, if we want to be one with Christ, if we desire to love Him and be possessed entirely in this love, we must move from the active perfection of the fruits of the Holy Spirit to the life of the Beatitudes. Christ did not have to be perfected, but He showed us the way.

Here is Manning again: “They describe the eight kinds of perfection by which the soul tastes of its eternal sweetness. They are poverty of spirit, meekness, holy sorrow, hunger and thirst for God, mercifulness, cleanness of heart, peacemaking among men, patience under persecution. We have here the image of Jesus Christ from Bethlehem to Calvary. Perfection begins in the stable, and is finished upon the Cross; and all along the way of perfection the children of the Beatitudes are known, not only for their active charity, which is the sap and strength of the twelve fruits of the Spirit, but by a gentle and passive charity, which unites them, I may say, visibly with God; got no man could do they thing they do except God were with him.”

So, the saints live in the Beatitudes, showing forth character, the life of the virtues, perfected while on earth.

Manning continues, and this leaves me so excited, that I can hardly type this out: “And, I may say that they are the last finishing touches by which the Holy Spirit of God completes His perfect will in us—that is, our perfection.”

Our perfection is this, then, in so many words-the complete of God’s Perfect Will in each of our lives.

To be continued…

Perfection II Series: Manning on The Fruits

Cardinal Manning presents us with excellent basic catechesis on the virtues, gifts, and fruits of the Spirit.

Faith, hope and charity, the theological virtues, are given to us in baptism. These are called by Manning the “the faculties of the soul which is born again.”

The gifts are infused, not obtained by practice. The fruits are the result of the gifts flowing into the life of the virtues.

Manning notes that the first fruit is love, or charity, as is the usual term. He writes that there is no middle ground for the growth of the fruits, One cannot be mediocre or lukewarm as a Catholic and bear the fruits of the Spirit of God.

The fruits are the “active perfection” of the soul, not the passive.

If we are not bearing fruit, the good Cardinal reminds us, we are dead, living in sin. There is no middle ground.

Love is first, then joy, which includes gratitude and “the consciousness of God’s infinite goodness, in which we live and move; peace, whereby we are at rest with God,  and in ourselves, and with all mankind.”

The Cardinal continues on the fruits which have to do with our neighbors. Patience is the most obvious fruit and Manning asks, “Are we irritable, revengeful, resentful, malicious?”

Those automatic reactions which happen too easily show us that we are not bearing fruit.

Manning is quite clear on this point. “If so, the fruits of the Holy Ghost are not in us, because the benignity of God is not in us.”

Again, we must ask for the purification necessary to bear fruit, to have all hidden sins removed from the depth of the soul.

Goodness follows patience. Longanimity is “another name for patience. Just as equity is the most delicate form of justice, longanimity  is the most perfect form of charity, the perpetual radiance of a loving heart which, in its dealings with all who are round about, looks kindly upon them and judges kindly of their faults. Longanimity  means also perseverance.”

What follows is an indictment for most of us. “…the not being wearied in well-doing, not throwing up and saying, ‘I have tried to good for such a one, I have tried to correct his faults, I have tried to win him; but he is ungrateful, he is incorrigible, and I will have no more to do with him.”

This is the mantra of divorce and the loss of friendship. Manning notes, “Our Lord does

not so deal with us. Longanimity means an unwearied perseverance in doing good.”

So often, we remove ourselves from relationships because we do not love enough, or long enough. Even in prayer, do we not sometimes give up?

There are many people I have been praying for over the years. I cannot see any change in their ungodly lives, as some are atheists, agnostics, heretics, or full of self-deception. They are not walking with God. Do I give up? No.

A spiritual stubbornness comes out of a heart which loves, even if there is not any regard or love returned.

Manning writes of mildness, gentleness, kindness, forebearance, “the dissembling of wrong, the absence of the fire of resentment and of the smouldering of ill-will.”

One must catch one’s self and immediately repent of even venial sin, even the uncharitable thoughts which one may not act upon.

To be continued….

More Thoughts from Cardinal Manning

There are still several more pages in the book by Cardinal Manning on the interior working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, which I must read. The book I have, a gift from a friend, is literally falling apart in my hands, the pages crumbling into bits as I turn them.

However, like an exile on a desert isle, I am saving the pieces and keeping the book in a freezer, plastic bag for now. Can one imagine all the great Catholic books disappearing in this way? Decaying either from the elements or lack of use, or from the blindness of those who never read these commentaries on the mysteries of the faith.

Manning writes this on prayer, which is my theme from him in this post. “Meditation is the patient thought of wisdom musing upon divine things.”  As noted in the perfection series, through the writings of Garrigou-Lagrange, in which he indicates that meditation comes before contemplation. Meditation is best learned through the writings of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who teaches us that meditation starts with pondering Holy Scripture.

One uses the Scriptures to concentrate on the life of Christ. Contemplation follows meditation. If one has trouble meditating, Manning tells us that there is a blockage,  something hindering the process of thinking and the use of the active imagination regarding the Scriptures.

Meditation involves the thinking of specifics in the lives of Mary, Our Blessed Mother, and Christ.

Contemplation is the active, and then, finally passive, reflection on the Attributes of God, God in truth and in love.

The Cardinal writes that the gift of Wisdom allows us to meditate and then to contemplate.  He makes a poignant distinction between the use of the gift of knowledge and the gift of wisdom. “…we see God in His creatures, and we ascend up by His creatures to Himself; but by the gift of wisdom we see God Himself, and, from the contemplation of his perfections, we descend to a knowledge of His works.” (p. 400).

One is an upward movement, and one is a downward movement.

Manning reminds us that we are all called to be saints and that detachment is a result of wisdom.  Wisdom is the last perfection of the soul.

He reminds us that the uninspired man has gifts which are oppressed. If one’s gifts are suppressed, there is a spiritual oppression. Manning quotes Romans 8:14, “For whoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

Usually, the oppressions are sin. If the sins are serious, the gifts are “lost” and inoperative. If one finds that the Holy Spirit does not seem to be active in one’s life, a good spiritual director can help discern the blockages.

To be continued… 

Perfection Series II: Manning and Angela

The reading of Cardinal Manning is like a cool, sea breeze on a stifling hot day. His clarity of mind and intense spirituality leads one into meditations on the Holy Ghost and the attributes of God. One moves from meditation on the Scriptures to contemplation of the nature of God as much as possible through grace.

St. Angela, as I have noted, is called the “Teacher of the Theologians”, was given infused knowledge as to the attribute of God, as well as details of the Passion.

One can see that see moved from the Dark Night into the Illuminative and then the Unitive States. All the insights of Garrigou-Lagrange apply to this great mystic.

But, remember, all Catholics are called to these stages, one by one, not skipping anything, in order to have union with God as much as possible while on earth.

This union is not for the benefit, merely, of the person sharing this, but for the building up of the Church.

One of the great insights from St. Angela which is worthy of reflection is the great objectivity towards all men and all women, as seen from God’s point of view. This insight astounds one. God sees and loves all humans, past, present, and future, damned and saved in one great objective view. No sinner can “hurt” God. No hatred affects Him. Christ sufferings in eternity have passed away into glory. This will be our heritage, if we love God and His ways.

St. Angela is one of the earliest saints to write and have experiences of the Eucharist in Adoration. I would call her the Patron Saint of Adorers, if I could. She could see all eternity in the Eucharist and all creation. Her gifts in Adoration span the centuries.

I cannot recommend her writings enough, and have not gone into her lengthy sections of Illumination and Union in ecstasy. I am resolved not to dwell on these stages until God lets me experience these myself. It is dangerous to read beyond where one is in the spiritual life. And, as a beginner in the Dark Night, I know my limitations.

I would like to mention that her encounter with the Crucified One, as she calls Christ, is perhaps the most intense and moving part of her writings. She notes that Christ suffered in each part of His Body for her sins using that part of her body.

To be confronted with vainglory, with pride of eye, with wastefulness and seeing each of these sins, among many connected with a specific pain of Christ provide a terrible witness of my sins. 

Imagine Christ stating that the nails in His Hands were from the sins of the hands of one person. Or the pain of His being stripped of all, even clothes, was owing to one's sins of wealth, the saving or the spending?

I encourage all my readers to read The Book of Divine Consolation of The Blessed Angela of Foligno.

And again, thanks to my friend Angela for the book, which I have now passed on to a priest.

Do Not Trust in Princes

How often did Our Lord and His Mother suffer because of the powers that be?

The other day, I told someone I could not trust an atheist or agnostic. This shocked the person. But, Cardinal Manning in his chapter on the gift of understanding, states the idea much more strongly.

“This gift of intellect or understanding, as it is a gift of the Holy Ghost, is found in no man who is out of the grace of God; and therefore in no one who is an unbeliever in the revelation of God, and therefore in no one who is out of charity with God and his neighbour. It is a special intellectual power or perfection given to those who, corresponding to the light of faith and to the Spirit of God working within them, receive, over and above the light and power of natural reason, a further supernatural gift which becomes habitual like a special faculty."

Why would anyone choose a politician, a world leader, or even a spouse from among those who have darkened intellects because of sin or unbelief?

Understanding helps each one of us perceive supernatural truths. Manning writes this of understanding, that it penetrates, “…into the reasons and the motives of faith” and that it helps to “exhibit and to prevail on others, by the exhibition of the truth, to believe in the same.”

It is a discernment, an “intuition”.  Manning notes that as when we read the words of a book, our intellect picks up more than just the letters on the page. We understand combinations, suggestions.

As I have noted from his previous book examined on this blog, and now, from this chapter, “Reason is the preamble of faith.”  Faith is rational and unbelief is irrational. So, how could anyone trust someone who is living in a lack of rationality?

St. Anselm is quoted by Manning: “...but having believed…as it would be contrary to the divine order for us to examine and to discuss by reasoning the revelation of God until we have believed it, so it would be an act of great negligence on our part if, after we have believed it, we did not try thoroughly to understand it…”.

We come to understand the meaning of the Scriptures, of Tradition.  Understanding, states Manning, leads to contemplation, which goes beyond an orthodox acceptance of revelation. One learns the answer to the Catechism questions, but one must return to ponder these truths, to understand.

I know people who do not believe in the Incarnation. They are Christian Scientists and Moslems. They do not believe that Christ is the God-Man.  In the Gospel of John, we see the phrase, “the Word made Flesh”. Manning points out that this is merely the beginning of the use of our intellect, which then absorbs the truths of the Nicene Creed, the Summa Theologica and so on. From the acceptance and then the beginning of understanding of the Incarnation, one moves to the doctrine of the Holy Sacrament, the Real Presence and so on.

The gift of understanding allows us to move from the basics to the sublime.

Would you trust your life to an atheist? Would you trust the words of someone who completely lacks understanding of who man is and Who God Is?

I believe, as did Cardinal Manning, the Doctors of the Church, the saints who defended the doctrines of the Church.  I believe in those who witnessed by their blood in the Church, in the Papacy, in Christ. I believe in the Church. But, then, I have chosen to develop the gift of understanding by seeking Truth, Who Is a Person, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

In our day, we are surrounded by those who demand our trust but who are not believersor who are separated by choice from the Church. They are involved in, as Manning puts it, “the complex pretensions of error”.

The Truth is simple and certain as it is from God, as Jesus called Himself, “the Way, the Truth, and the Life”.

To trust in Christ using the gift of understanding is to choose life.

“We must choose between one of two things: we must either believe the Catholic faith, or find a rational and intellectual solution of the unity of truth, and of its adaptation to human nature and of the existence of the Christian world.”

Cardinal Manning speaks to us today.

Of course, as no one can do this, relativism and subjectivism are rife.

To be continued…

Perfection Series II: Cardinal Manning on Giving Up Self-Will

Cardinal Manning cuts to the quick concerning why so many people who are baptized and confirmed, have the gifts of wisdom and counsel, as well as discernment, and still go astray, into foolishness.

Here is his answer, to a question several readers have asked me to delineate. I use his words which are found in the long perfection series similar to those of other saints, reiterated by me, concerning the loss of discernment. Let the holy and expert Cardinal answer: “This gift of counsel lies dormant in them; it is oppressed, kept down by their own mental and moral faults. They have made their ear dull of hearing and their eye dark so that they cannot discern. The first great antagonist of this spirit of counsel is the wisdom of the world.  And the wisdom of the world is the fashion and opinion of men possessed with the spirit which is of the world and not of God. The maxims, the traditions, the habits of thought, and the habits of life which spring from flesh and blood…these things stifle the voice of counsel.”

Too many Catholics do not want to admit that the thinking of the world perverts their own minds and therefore, their consciences.

I have written a lot on this blog on the ego Believe it or not, people object to me writing that the ego gets in the way of building up the Church.

Manning states the problem better than I do. “The love of pre-eminence; the inordinate desire of their own proper excellence; a ser-conscious straining to be spiritual guides of other men, to correct their faults, to criticize their actions and their states before God, and to go about setting others right—these are some of the least perceived and subtilest workings of pride….The greatest intellects are sometimes found in the smallest moral characters. The want of counsel makes them to be strange mixtures of greatness and littleness.”

I have struggled on this blog to know what and when to state some things critical of others or even of groups. One must look carefully at one’s self to look at motives and leanings, the lack of purity and the need for healing. I have chosen to back off from criticizing the clergy, for example, believing that I cannot judge publicly and that it is better if I pray for those I think have gone astray and are no longer good pastors.

The other great sin of those who have received baptismal and confirmed gifts is that of presumption. Manning notes this, “This presumption, the root of which is in all of us, will, if indulged, destroy and utterly extinguish the gift of counsel.”

I have seen this happen among good people who are working in the Church. I have seen this in fellow bloggers, as well as in myself. One must be willing to let God deal with us, take us through purgation.

Presumption can lead to becoming rash and not praying to God for guidance.

It can lead to impetuosity, which is of the flesh, not the Spirit, states Manning. “They invert the divine order; and having set out in the way of their own choosing, they come to crosses and sorrows.  Then, they begin to ask for counsel, and perhaps they ask it of God; but they ask it too late. They are already so committed that they cannot go back. At last they so persuade themselves, that they will not follow good advice even if it were given.”

This is why we need to find good spiritual directors, which is so hard at this time.  We cannot fall into a pattern of trying to force our will upon the Will of God. How silly it is to think that we can make God’s will give way.

Manning quotes the great St. Augustine: “Thou, O Lord, givest counsel to all that ask. If they ask of Thee divers things, Thou always answerest he same; Thou answerest clearly enough, but they will not hear Thee, for they ask the things they desire, and they wish to make Thy will bend to theirs. Thou answerest that which is Thy will, and they hear what they will not; and therefore they do it not. He is the best servant who does not desire that God should say the things that he wills, but who desires himself to will the things that God says.”

This is the reason for the Dark Night. The purgation of self-will and “self-counsel” that is the “pride of his own will, and the pride of his own judgment” must happen.

Submitting to the Will of God really means giving in. Manning states, “When you kneel at the holy Mass, put your heart upon the paten and let it be offered up. God will counsel you. If you do His will, even though it cross your own, then you have the surest sign that you are not following your own choice.”

This purgation of the will leads, finally, to purity of heart.  That is the reason for such purgation. One has to stop playing God and let God be God in one’s life. 

Manning advises us, “Desire, then, to please God above all things, and all things shall be added unto you. If you cannot do all you desire, at least desire great things for His sake.”

This is what it means to become like a little child. Children who have good parents implicitly trust those parents in love. “Freely choose His service; for it is your freedom, and its own exceeding great reward,” which are the Cardinal’s last words on this subject.

To be continued…

Perfection Series II: Manning on the Prudent and the Wise

This section on the gifts of the Holy Spirit truly strikes at the heart of the new Church in some parishes. Years ago, someone in authority in a chancery office told me that all priests should have business degrees. He thought that running the finances of a parish trumped all other pastoral duties, obviously, including dispensing the sacraments.

I thought “Oh dear, St. John Vianney would not have made it.”

His answer is what Manning would call, perhaps, a prudent answer, based on the ideals of the world regarding monetary solvency.

However, the wise man would have been called by this chancery authority a fool, for the wise man sees things through the eyes of heaven.

Manning writes this: Suppose any man to do what Saint Charles Borromeo did-sell the whole of his patrimony, and distribute it all in one day to the poor. The world would certainly call him a fool. The prudent men of this world would have thought him mad. The political economist would have said that he committed a double evil: that his profuse almsgiving only promoted indolence and beggary and that stripping of himself of all things was a signal improvidence.”

Wisdom sees the world and heaven with the eyes of a “higher light”, as Manning notes.

“Prudence, which belongs to the natural order of this world, aims at two things: it aims at conduct which shall be irreproachable in the eyes of men, and at a certain happiness which shall be so attained…Wisdom aims at conformity to the perfections of God; at a state which is supernatural and eternal; at an end which is above this earth; at a bliss which the world can neither give nor understand…”

Manning refers to wisdom as in the gift of counsel, which includes prudence but more. He states, “It is certain quality or perfection infused into the reason of man by the grace of the Holy Ghost, whereby the reason is made able to discern not only right and wrong, nor only the way of obedience, but also the way of perfection; that is, to know that which, between two things both good and right, is better, higher, and more pleasing in the sight of God. It gives also, together with that discernment, a certain promptness and facility; that is, a ready will to do and to carry out into practice that which we see to be the higher and better part.”

St. Francis would have been deemed imprudent. So would have St. Claire and St. Etheldreda.

Here is Manning again: “Prudence commands us with an imperial voice to obey the commandments of God and the precepts of the Church. But the gift of counsel moves, invites, and draws the hearts to go beyond that which is literally necessary, to do that which is called a work of supererogation; that is , we go over and beyond that to which we are bound.”  St. Charles Borromeo’s  actions provide the Cardinal with an example for us. 

Counsel is the gift which calls us to do more, and which gives the motive to glorify God by our decisions which go beyond those of most people. Counsel shows us the way to perfection, as one sees two goods, but one is better, more difficult. The story of the Rich Young Man in the Scriptures is an example of a Jewish youth keeping all the Commandments, which is a good, of course, and necessary, but Christ called him to move beyond the good to the perfect.

Counsel speaks to the heart. I find this Cardinal Manning’s most convincing meditation on this gift.

It is worth quoting this section at length.

“The first effect of it on the heart, I will say of a man of the world, is to turn him to God. How many times have you heard a voice in your heart saying to you, ‘If I live on as I am now, shall I make a good end? I desire to die the death of the just; but have I begun to live the life of the just?” Our Lord has said, ‘Behold, I stand at the gate and knock.’ Have I yet opened to Him?

Manning had a great love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but I am also reminded of the famous painting of Jesus at the door. Christ knocks at the door of the heart over and over, reminding each one of us that to follow Him is to leave the world to whatever extent we can. Manning writes, “The voice of counsel has been pleading with you to give up the world…And do I believe, and can I say to myself I know the whole truth as it is in Jesus, and as it was revealed on the day of Pentecost—every doctrine, every commandment, and every counsel?’

Just repeating these words for my readers touches my heart and brings me joy.  But, the good Cardinal continues to write words which bring me sorrow.

“The voice of counsel in this land of England is speaking in a multitude of hearts conscious of their uncertainty, conscious of their twilight, conscious of their doubts, and is saying, ‘Turn to Me while there is still time.’”

How I would love to return to England and work for the Church there, to bring those who may be prudent into a realization of living in the gift of counsel.

Manning stresses that the gift of counsel reveals the truths of the Catholic Church to us, bringing us to the responsibility of choosing obedience in order to be saved. But, this step into orthodoxy, as I have noted in the perfection series, is only the first step to becoming perfect.

And, Manning refers to the two conversions, also highlighted in the perfection series, from the works of the saints and from Garrigou-Lagrange.

“Every soul has two conversions: the first, to the truth and to penance; and the second, to a higher life and to perfection; that is, it is not enough for you to simply to know the truth, and to obey it in the things that are necessary-you must go further…”  He reminds us that all men are called to perfection. 

We must deny ourselves anything which will either lead us to venial sins or lead others to sin.  Manning encourages parents, for example, to deny themselves “lawful things”. This ideal, is, of course, runs contrary to materialism and consumerism of the Western world.  We reject anything which may offend God or others.  We have free will to reject things and people and places which cause offense.  Manning writes, “These are counsels; they are not commandments; they are left o the free will of those who desire to be perfect in God’s service.”

I wish I could have met Cardinal Manning. More than many holy men of the 19^th century, he speaks to us today.

To be continued…. 

Perfection Series II: The Wisdom of Manning

As this is the Feast of the Holy Trinity, it is appropriate to concentrate on the way of perfection. Remember that from baptism, we all have the Indwelling of the Trinity within us, with us daily, unless we lose this presence through mortal sin.

I have morphed the Manning mini-series into the Perfection II series, as I did with the meditations on St. Angela. Is it not interesting that all the great saints and great minds of the Church come to the same conclusion regarding the way to perfection?

The last two main ideas to cover in this section on the gift of counsel involve the “law of liberty” and the taming of the will.

Firstly, the law of liberty is misunderstood, or not even considered by many Catholics. Here is Manning: “…if we desire to be sanctified, if we desire to be conformed to the likeness of our Divine Lord and His Immaculate Mother,--then the gift of counsel and the prompting of generous love will make us press onward and rise higher in the spiritual life.”

Manning reminds us that the words of the Sermon on the Mount, the way of perfection, were not spoken to monks, religious in cloisters or recluses, but to men on the mountain-to all of us.

“The Sermon on the Mount is the law of perfection given to the Christian people of the world; it is given to you  Our Divine Master calls us to use our liberty as Christians, to rise above the low level of that which is absolutely necessary by the law of commandments, and to ascend up by the law of liberty towards Him, upon the mountain  where He, our Light and our Life, dwells eternally.”

Cardinal Manning rightly emphasizes that the Sermon on the Mount created Christendom, and Christendom has fallen into ruin because of the loss of vision, the sins, which contradict the way of perfection.

I must quote Manning on this point: “Tell me where is to be found the Sermon on the Mount; where is to be found voluntary poverty, where is to be found obedience even unto death, where the spirit of the martyrs, where the self-denial of the confessors, where the meekness of the forgiving, and the mercy of those who dies for their brethren?  These things are to be found wheresoever the law of liberty and the gift of cunsel are the light and the guidance of men. “

To be continued tomorrow….

Be of Good Cheer

This is worth repeating...

from Cardinal Manning...

“…if you are the true followers of Jesus Christ, it (the world) will misunderstand and reject you. ‘Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him,’—conformed to Him Who is the firstborn among the sons of God, because He is the Son of God, begotten of the substance of the Father before all worlds, and man of the substance of His Mother born in the world. Such is our predestination; ‘and every man that hath this hope in him sanctified himself, even as he also is holy.” 1 John iii, 1-3

Be of good cheer. God has conquered the world, even if we must endure persecution and tribulation. He has had us in mind from all time….

Such is my consolation and such will be ours in the coming times

Encouragement from Cardinal Manning in The Dark Night

I write this for S and J, especially..

The great man writes this: “…do not be afraid when the consciousness of your past sins and of your many temptations seems to come down upon you and to overwhelm you as a flood. In those darkest times, be sure that if you love God you are still united with Him. It is not when we walk in the brightness of the noonday only that we are untied with Him. The purest union with God is when we walk with Him in the darkness, without consolation and without joy; having no other guide; our hand in His hand; going on like children, not knowing whither, but obeying the inspirations of God to do or not to do as He wills: out in the bleak cold sky, with no joy in our prayers and no rest of heart, in constant inward fears, with temptations all around, but always faithful to the guide”

I share these words to those in the Dark Night, those who are seeking the Bridegroom Who has removed Himself from our presence.

Remember these words of the good Cardinal: “It is not when we walk in the brightness of the noonday only that we are united with Him. The purest union with God is when we walk with Him in the darkness, without consolation and without joy; having no other guide; our hand in His hand; going on like children, not knowing whither; but obeying the inspirations of God to do or not to do as He wills; out in the bleak cold sky, with no joy in our prayers and no rest of heart, in constant inward fears, with temptations all around, but always faithful to the guidance of the Spirit of God.”

I repeat these words from Manning to encourage you. “There are two axioms in the Kingdom of God which shall never fail: no penitent soul can perish, and no soul that loves God can be lost.”

I can assure you all that a great peace and confidence come upon one when one trusts in Divine Providence.

A few more words from the Cardinal: “…know yourselves: be conscious of your own dignity and be conscious of the dignity of others. Your are the sons of the Great King…From all eternity God foreknew you, and in due time God called you by the Holy Ghost; and when He called you He justified you, and when He justified you He put upon you the glory of His children and the heirship of His Kingdom.”

To be continued…