Thoughts While Sitting Behind Whitefriars

Statue of St. Thérèse at the Most Holy Trinity Church, Fulnek, Czech Republic Radim SCHOLASTER  wiki 

Pope John Paul I said this of St. Therese of Lisieux, "Once you had chosen the path of complete dedication to God, nothing could stop you: not illness, nor opposition from outside, nor the mists or inner darkness."

I hope someday someone can say this of me....the black wall of the Dark Night demands faith without consolation.

Period.

For St. Teresa's Day-repeats and more on the tags

Perfection Series IV: Part Seventeen; The Fifth Mansion of St ...

22 Aug 2014

Perfection Series IV: Part Seventeen; The Fifth Mansion of St. Teresa of Avila. Posted by Supertradmum. Perhaps one of the easiest descriptions of the Unitive State is from St. Teresa of Avila. I shall let her share her ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Some Back Posts on St. Teresa of Avila

15 Oct 2013

Fulton J. Sheen And St. Teresa of Avila. Posted by Supertradmum. Life, Truth, Love, states Ven. Fulton J. Sheen, are what we find in heaven. The soul who hates those would be tormented in heaven and that soul, who has .

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Perfection Series IV: Part Sixteen; The ...

22 Aug 2014

St. Teresa of Avila puts the Unitive State at the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Mansions, the highest being ecstasy and the Spiritual Marriage. I have written about the Spiritual Marriage several times on this blog, and refer you to ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: St. Teresa of Avila

15 Oct 2013

For the rest, like the Great Teresa, this road was strewn with rocks and she met with dangerous spiritual crevices. One only has to read her writings to see this hard journey. Today is the Feast Day of St. Teresa of Avila.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

On Hell from Ven. Fulton J. Sheen And St. Teresa of Avila

15 Sep 2013

On Hell from Ven. Fulton J. Sheen And St. Teresa of Avila. Posted by Supertradmum. Life, Truth, Love, states Ven. Fulton J. Sheen, are what we find in heaven. The soul who hates those would be tormented in heaven and that ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux and ...

04 Aug 2013

Garrigou-Lagrange has at interesting comparison concerning the experience of the passive purification of the Illuminative State leading up to Unitive State and St. Therese, St. Teresa, and St. John of the Cross. I do not think I ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Part four and more on St. John of Avila

08 Feb 2013

St. John of Avila writes to a lady on what holiness is. Obviously, he was aware of those stages of perfection, and so inspired St. Teresa of Avila, to whom he wrote as well. He is summarizing all three stages here, purification, ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: John of Avila, Three

09 May 2014

St. John of Avila writes to a lady on what holiness is. Obviously, he was aware of those stages of perfection, and so inspired St. Teresa of Avila, to whom he wrote as well. He is summarizing all three stages here, purification, ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: On Aging and Sainthood : The Habits of ...

22 Dec 2013

Some saints died in early middle age or middle-middle age, such as St. John of the Cross (49), St. Teresa of Avila (67) or St. Camillus of Lilles, (64). Many modern saints died over the age of seventy, such as St. John of Avila, ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Pray for Us

Check out all the posts marked carmelites or perfection carmelites

Called to Be A Cell Within A Cell

The journey into contemplative prayer is hard work. Beginners need guidance. I am a beginner.

The pitfalls are discouragement and pride. But, one must go forward and not falter. Contemplative prayer begins with hard work, and for the proficient, ends up in infused contemplation.

This type of prayer leads to the infused knowledge of God, but begins with acquired contemplation. One cannot confuse the two, and Garrigou-Lagrange is clear on the definitions.  But, this is the prayer which begins when one gives time to God in order to meet Him as He wants to be found. One cannot rush this type of prayer, nor expect God to work in every person in the exact same way. Yet, we are all called to this.

Because intellectuals have such active lives and imaginations, time must be set aside for the emptying of memory, understanding, and will. I have written on this before on this blog.

The happy correspondence of this type of prayer for me is that it follows a life of reading and thinking in overlaps involving the Maritains, Garrigou-Lagrange, and, of course, Thomas Aquinas.

We are all called to this type of prayer, but I could not arrange my life to answer this deepening call until today. My health did not let me stay in Tyburn, but i still need the door to open for me to be in a place where I have the freedom to follow this call. One needs strict privacy and time to be with God, to wait on God. I can become more of a cell within a cell in quiet but not in noise or interruption. As a beginner, I want to share the trials and tribulations of contemplation.

I shall share insights with you all as I go along, as I am, always, a teacher as well as a pray-er.

This is not a prayer of visions, by the way. One moves into a mental and spiritual state where God can finally reveal Himself as He wants to be known. This is the way of emptying. I am grateful for the opportunity to pursue the Bridegroom, Who removed Himself from me for a time. But, I need the space.

All preconceived ideas of how He meets us pass away. One is not in control of the relationship, but God is totally.

Here is the goal of giving this time to God.

Song of Solomon 3

Douay-Rheims 

3 In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and found him not.

2 I will rise, and will go about the city: in the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and I found him not.

3 The watchmen who keep the city, found me: Have you seen him, whom my soul loveth?

4 When I had a little passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him: and I will not let him go, till I bring him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that bore me.

An Unusual but Beautiful Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/DivineIntimacyFrGabrielCarmeliteSpirituality

Father Palau Part Three

Blessed Francisco Palau had a great devotion to Our Lady of Virtues. This title of Mary is not well-known in America. The site of the original shrine outside of Lisbon is in ruins, as far as I could ascertain. But, this name of Mary and her shrine was popular in the Medieval period.

A list of her virtues and an explanation of these may be found here. Someone may want to translate those around Mary in the painting.

Most Pure (Mt. 1:18, 20, 23; Lk 1:27,34) Most Prudent (Lk 2:19, 51) Most Humble (Lk 1:48) Most Faithful (Lk 1:45; Jn 2:5) Most Devout (Lk 1:46-7; Acts 1:14) Most Obedient (Lk 1:38; 2:21-2, 27) Most Poor (Lk 2:7) Most Patient (Jn 19:25) Most Merciful (Lk 1:39, 56) Most Sorrowful (Lk 2:35)

Father Palau Part Two

Blessed Francisco Palau worked in the world of spiritual warfare. His battles were with both the horrible, anti-Catholic tyrants of the time and with the demons of the air.

Here is a section of his writings. It is interesting that the enemies of the Church know more about this Blessed than we do.

...from the air the princes and powers with his king Belzebuth, presented armed with an order of men, who have a covenant with him, and like a mysterious network extending over all the earth , having their centers, schools, teachers in all the capitals of the world; and his work is authorized and supported by the laws of free worship and pagan authorities, presented in the form of some Catholics and other declared enemies of Catholicism.

The fight has been moved to another field accordingly, that is, against these evil spirits, in a thousand ways that poison the air, produce fever, cholera, typhus, fevers strange arm a people against another people, one nation against another, inventing machines of death against man, always new, chairing the meetings, and all political and religious meetings aimed at the destruction of Catholicism, and hold in their thrones and kings antisocial governments, thwarting all plans designed by true Catholic Church to save the human society..."The Hermit", Year IV, No. 121, March 2, 1871

Blessed Francisco Palau had traveled to Rome to speak with Pope Pius X about setting up an order of exorcists. Now, this in finally happening.

To be continued....

Meet A Relatively Unknown Saint of The Way of Perfection Part One

The day Blessed Francisco Palau was beatified, April 24, 1988, I was in Hayward's Heath getting ready to have my new baby. This blessed's day passed me by until this week, when I was introduced to Francisco Palau.

The Carmelite shows us that this world and the spiritual world of perfection can be balanced in order to serve both God and man.

His life seems exciting, but all he wanted to be was a hermit seeking God in perfection. But, God called him to love the Church and be active in the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. Here is one prayer from the first link below.

My good Jesus, encouraged by your promises, I
am going to explain to you my need, and to present to you
my request. But we cannot pray, and do not know how to
pray, or to understand what we must pray for, nor how nor
when. We can only pray well and rightly and with the
necessary faith when the Holy Spirit, who knows all our
needs, and with unspeakable groans, prays in our hearts,
and moves us to pray, teaches us what we have to ask, and
makes us ask [Rom 8,26]. So my dear Lord, in order to think
of what I should ask, and to pray for it properly, and thus fulfil
the command you have given me to pray to you, I need the
help of the Holy Spirit. Send this divine Spirit into my heart,
and he will pray in me, he will teach me what I have to ask,
how and when I must pray, and he will give me strength to
persevere in my request until I have obtained what I wanted.
I ask you for this grace now so that afterwards I may know
how to pray properly for what your Holy Spirit teaches me.
Remember your promise that you would send him to us to
inspire us and teach us to do all that you command us. You
said: “The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in my name will instruct you in everything.

Here are some links for more information on Bl. Francisco Palau.

http://www.carmelitasmisioneras.org/images/Palau/Palau-English.pdf

http://www.carmelite.org.uk/stfrancis.html

http://www.ourgardenofcarmel.org/palau.html

On the link on the above page, one reads this:

In prayer you shall find faith, hope and love. You are sufficiently instructed and experienced in the exercise of these virtues and the main preoccupations and errors you had have been eradicated. This is why you find the acts of union easy, sweet and satisfying, and without recognizing nor seeing the union, you feel it, you are at east with God, you deal easily and amicably with him and readily make friends with him. Well, I have nothing to tell you about this at present except that you must keep on and taking advantage of this interior ease with God, you must ask for graces, confirm and strengthen your moral virtues, and making yourself strong in this interior castle, you must fight your moods of sadness and their causes, uproot your unfounded sorrows aand get ready (My paper got over for hand not planned to write so extensively. But since I am at it I will go on) on the dreadful battles that the three enemies wage against this divine union. Live united with God and see to it that nothing, whether hunger or thirs, the sword, fortune or misfortune, nothing wahtever disturbs your heart. Live united with God and everything else vanish like smoke.

When you examine your conscience (attention to what I am going to tell you) do not go too far; look at it as we look at the seashore from the top of the Alps or the Pyrenees, lightly, without going into details. If you do not see anything clearly and certainly wrong, go ahead and be at peace with your God. Mind this, I repeat, anad do tell me how you are faring, because the devil could trick you and do you serious hard with his false doctrine and suggestions. This union produces peace of mind; then search for peace. Let nothing disturb you, be it good or bad. Give up everything else except your peace of mind. Wheny ou feel restless, sad, sorrowful and embittered, look for the cause, and ifi it is not worth being sorrying about (and nothing that does not offend God is worth being sorry about), get rid of your anxiety; if you do not see the causes but feel restless and dissatisfied all the same, put up with it, arm yourself with patience, let the storm pass, and your inner peace will return.

This union, my sister, demands a heart at peace, calm, unalterable, like some place in heaven, and we can and must acquire it fighting hard whatever threatens if from outside ourselves.

St. Therese on Purification

Ah! since that day love penetrates me and surrounds me; this Merciful Love each moment renews and purifies me, leaving in my heart no trace of sin. No, I cannot fear Purgatory; I know that I do not merit even to enter with the Holy Souls into that place of expiation, but I know too that the fire of Love is more sanctifying than the fire of Purgatory, I know that Jesus cannot will needless suffering for us, and that He would not inspire me with the desires I feel if He were unwilling to fulfill them.

Story of A Soul, Chapter 8

Dark Night Series Continued

For those friends of mine in the Dark Night, I want to share some ideas from the writings of St. John of the Cross. For those who have not been following this series, just click on the tags below.

I want to highlight a few points only.

The first is St. John's insight that God did not reveal Himself to Job in prosperity, but only after Job was in abject suffering. Why is this? Job, like all of us, had to endure the purification of the senses and the spirit in order to meet God as He is. The sacredness of God's Presence is us is continually blocked by our sins and imperfections.

Just as Job had to be stripped of all prior conceptions of God, so too, we must be loosened from old habits of thinking and feeling.

Second, self-knowledge is the goal of the Dark Night. Without the stripping of all false gods on which we depend, even the false god of working in and for the Church, we cannot see our true self, as God sees us.

Self-knowledge blossoms in humiliating circumstances.

St. John referred to the verse in Exodus 33:5, where Moses instructed, through God's Word, the People of God to put off their festive clothing and wear the clothing of penance. Why is this? John tells us that if we continually rely on the outward appearances of prosperity and worldliness, we do not see ourselves as we truly are-full of sin and those particular faults about which I have written here. This is one reason why the Benedictines wear black-as a reminder of mortification and death of the body, allowing for freedom to pursue the life of the spirit.

Third, and this is very important for all people, it is only after the senses are purified that the intellect is free to come to understanding. The intellect is impeded by the senses, which is one of the huge problems with those who seek continual consolations from God. The intellect must apprehend truth, goodness, beauty-those attributes of God Himself and this cannot be done when the intellect dwells upon the senses.

Purification of the senses comes first and then purification of the spirit.

John of the Cross quotes St. Augustine many times, and one of this phrases which is worthy of memorizing is this: "Let me know myself, Lord, and then I will know You."

Such particular faults as pride and vainglory must be struck down in the purification of the senses. When one simplifies one's life with regard to clothing and things, one is virtually left naked before God.

This nakedness provides the basis for God to begin to show Himself in a new way to the person pursuing perfection.

to be continued...

Moving Through the Six Levels of Prayer

The Dark Night of the Senses comes first and then the Dark Night of the Spirit. I prefer John of the Cross on this stage, one following the other, with some consolations in between to encourage the person in love. These moments of consolation are not sought, and, as I have written on this blog many times, those people who seek consolations will not grow spiritually and can most easily be waylaid by the evil one and taken off the correct path.

The purgation of the senses can be very painful, and long. And, one can slide back from all of these stages, which I know from experience. If we stop praying in the levels we have attained, we slide back.

Not good.

Remembering that God wants all of us Catholics to persevere on the road to perfection, we must keep up a level of energy and attentiveness.

The levels of prayer I have covered so far are mostly active states of prayer, not passive. These first four levels are initiated, through grace, by the person. The last two higher levels are passive, and initiated by God.

Hard work, in other words, to get to the passive stage and one becomes more aware of one's sinful state....to be continued....

The Dark Night Part 48

Drawing to a close on this series, I want to highlight a few points from St. John of the Cross.
Some of this is repetition.

One, St. David, King, went through these states and into Union with God. His psalms reference the journey, as St. John so clearly notes. If we meditate on the Psalms, one of the points of using the Breviary, we join in that process.

Two, St. John refers to Aristotle, calling him The Philosopher, as does Aquinas. In one reference, John notes that Aristotle writes in Metaphysics that the clearer and brighter are Divine things, such as infused contemplation, the darker these things seem to the soul which has not been completely purified.
St. John also refers to St. Dionysius writing of this same light and dark observation.


One commentator notes that the root of infused contemplation is darkness but that it brings light. This is not necessarily a fast process. (Kavanaugh)

Only in Union is all light.

Three, the Dark Night of the Spirit brings the experience of love into the soul, mind, will and body which has undergone purgation.  If these faculties are purified, one experiences the power of the Holy Spirit, yet unknowingly, until the Illumination State, when the Catholic becomes a powerhouse of holiness, which spills out in obviously inspired work. Such was the enduring work of SS. Benedict, Dominic, Francis, and other founders of orders and great movements, notes Garrigou-Lagrange.

Four, Grace leads one into forgetfulness of self. But only one attachment, states St. John, only one, ruins the whole process and puts the liberty of the fruits of the Spirit on hold. One attachment interferes with the experience of the true love of God.

Five, St. John of the Cross and St. Bernard state the same thing, that the Bride must go out and seek the Bridegroom. She realizes finally that she was lost and not the Groom. The poem of St. John's on the Dark Night echoes the Song of Songs, and St. Bernard's sermons that the purged and humbled Bride must seek the Groom, correspond. This is our position in the Dark Night-seeking God Who is hidden until we can bear to see Him. Here is the passage from the Bible. Song of Songs, 3: 1-3; DR







In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and found him not.

I will rise, and will go about the city: in the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and I found him not.

The watchmen who keep the city, found me: Have you seen him, whom my soul loveth?

To be continued.....

Dark Night Part 46-The Freeing of the Fruits

The Dark Night brings infused contemplation, or mystical theology, which is a great inflow of God into the soul according to St. John of the Cross. This inflow has been given in baptism and confirmation and the sacraments of confession and the Eucharist, but the great movement of grace has been barred by venial sin and imperfections.

St. John writes about habitual ignorances and imperfections. These must go, as only the perfect see God. Natural and spiritual imperfections stop the entrance of God in us. He waits at the door, as it were, until we are purified, for that union of love.

However, one good thing which happens is that one's desire to serve God only in all things becomes stronger and stronger in this Dark Night.  One yearns for Him more.

This yearning leads one to more frequent confession and more frequent Communion. Daily Mass, if possible, helps greatly at this time, NOT because one is feeling consolations, but because one wants to be with and in God.

My prayer in 2011 was that God would take my little shriveled heart and give me His Heart. My prayers in 2013 have been God take me completely into Yourself and make me into love, and my second prayer has been God, show me my sins and imperfections, all things that keep me from you so the first two things can happen. One's prayers actually become simpler, more basic in the Dark Night because one only has one desire, eventually, when all other desires are destroyed. That is to see and be loved by the Bridegroom.

Now, here is an important point of St. John's which I know to be true.

Padre Pio in the Confessional

One does not experience the freedom, the liberty of seeing in one's life the twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit until one has been purged of all sensory appetites and sensory affections.

Here is a list of those fruits to remind us all what these are: love, joy, peace, modesty, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness. self-control and chastity.

St. John means that, again, like a clogged pipe, our hearts, minds, souls do not have the ability to release these fruits. We may have thought we were experiencing these, but if we did before purgation, these were tainted by self-aggrandizement and pride.

The real liberty comes with purity. Then, these fruits are grounded in God's love, in our love for Him and His love for us, instead of self-love.

Real humility in the Dark Night comes when one realizes that one has never really been good, or peaceful, or patient, or kind or gentle or so on.

These fruits come with one's cooperating with purification.

Now, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, received in confirmation, help one get to and through the purgation-remember that these are wisdom, understanding, prudence, courage, knowledge, reverence and fear of the Lord, In the Dark Night, these gifts are enhanced in the infused contemplation.

Padre Pio in the Confessional

One can and must still practice the moral and cardinal virtues at this time, but these, also, are not perfectly experienced in the soul until the Illumination State, when all these virtues, gifts and fruits come into being in real power.

Let us all pray for this journey.

Dark Night Part 45

I have decided to stop the Dark Night discussion at Part 50, as I do not want to talk about something beyond my experience. In this spiritual journey, it is absolutely essential not to confuse the study with the experience. I can described the Illuminative and Unitive States, and have done so in the past. But, after the Dark Night series, I shall take yet another break from the process to holiness. Remember, only the perfect see God and we can ask for our Purgatory on earth, which is what this is all about.

St. John helps us all understand the process. One must go through this if one is an adult who has habits of sin, although, of course, God can do it all in a day, an hour a minute, or in fifty years.

I want to go over a few random points in this post.

First of all, St. Teresa states one can still venially sin at this state, but some theologians say nay. I think that imperfections can occur, but that venial sins become more and more rare, as habits of sin are broken.

Temptations come until one breaths one's last breath, and the purpose of the Dark Night is to purge one of sins and and the imperfections. Most commonly, one has to get rid of the thinking sins; those sins which one does not act upon, but which well up from the shrunken hearts to remind us of our impurity. The two greatest temptations in the dark night might surprise one and I have mentioned these before. St. John states these temptations and he is right. These are the temptations to spiritual pride and sexual sins. Amazing-the reality of one's humanity stares one in the face in the Dark Night. All sensual sins have root in the spirit, a point St. John makes clearly. But, there are more subtle sins which the Dark Night reveals.

For example, one many never act on being critical, but find that one has a habit of critical thoughts towards others. This is a sin and shows a habitual imperfection. The same could be of envy, where one would never give in to random thoughts of wishing one had someone's job, status or money, or even love, but one has to let God's light into those dark areas to purge one of even thinking those thoughts. Automatic responses are killed in the Dark Night. One must confess everything which comes up, and this means finding a holy priest who understands the way of perfection.

Second point today, the Dark Night is an odd time of both hard work and complete passivity.

This ebb and flow of cooperating with grace and being passive is totally in God's Hands and in His timing.

St. John writes that in the Dark Night, God "leaves the intellect in darkness; the will in aridity; the memory in emptiness; and the affections in supreme affliction, bitterness, and anguish, by depriving the soul of the feeling and satisfaction it previously obtained form spiritual blessings."

This is suffering. How does this look? One is not loved, or rarely; one does not understand what is happening, nor can one use memory for solace or example; one has no comfort from men or God and is frequently misunderstood; one does not even experience the comforts or solace, for example, at Adoration, one did in the past.

For me, the one word which describes this time is nada, nothing.  One no longer expects specific things or people or events, but rests in the knowledge that God is in control. This mode of being demands faith.

Third and last point today--a real sigh of this state is the quiet joy in suffering and a grateful spirit, springing up from new humility.  One waits for God to love, and if one does not feel or see this, so what? God is the hidden God, loving anyway.

The Dark Night is the great time for faith, living without seeing; hope, in the promise of a deeper love; and love, which is totally in the will.

To be continued....

Dark Night of The Soul And Patience: Part 44

I wrote here about the theological virtues and the Dark Night.
http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.ie/2013/08/consumerism-materialism-pride-and.html

There are many other posts on the life of the virtues, which is the most misunderstood area of our Catholic lives and rarely taught correctly. Just put the title virtues in the search bar, or use the tags.

In all of my long years, I have only heard one sermon from the pulpit, and Fr. Chad Ripperger's talks in which a priest actually delineated the need for purification BEFORE the life of the virtues is being exemplified. This is indicated in Garrigou-Lagrange and in St. John of the Cross. Why priests do not share this information can only mean that they do not know it, or are dumbing down the process of living in the virtues.

We are given the theological and cardinal virtues as gifts in baptism. Every time we receive the Eucharist or go to Confession, we allow God to stir up those virtues as it were.

However, to live in the holiness of the life of the virtues, a person must go through purification, must.

Why?

Several reasons. The first is that most adults have sins and tendencies which clog up the heart, mind, soul and will like slug in mechanical works. Years of bad habits, turning away from grace, the lack of penances and the avoidance, or hatred of suffering create obstacles to the free flowing of the virtues.

Purification is like putting Drano in the drains so that the river of grace can enter into every part of one's being. Sadly, some of us need more than the liquid or gel; we need the drain snakes.

A second reason is pride, the basic sin of all of us. Without humility, the opposite of pride, one is not free enough to use the virtues for God alone, instead of for one's own ego.

Now, one of the greatest blockages is the sin of impatience, which St. John of the Cross notes is an impediment to holiness.

One becomes impatient with others, and one's self; impatience with events; and worse, with suffering.

The value of getting older is that impatience becomes less a burden. The older person is forced by nature, by the slowing down of the body's ability to do everything extremely well and in a timely fashion, to become patience.

If an old or older person is impatience, this is a huge sign that he is not cooperating with the suffering of the Dark Night. I have written several posts using the lunge line in horse training as a metaphor for the discipline which comes in the Dark Night. Aging is a lunge line.









Suffering, because of our fallen state, is a necessity for this
purification. Sadly, many of us run away from suffering,
especially Americans, who frequently strive after the cult
of comfort.

If one fights this discipline and dies outside the life of the virtues, one will go to purgatory.

Virtues are not emotions, but effect the life of the emotions. Patience is the acceptance of imperfection, not a feeling. It is the acceptance of one's sinful nature and the limitations of the soul, the mind, the will.

When I was a child, some of my favourite books were the horse series by Marguerite Henry. How does a horse become a champion? Training, discipline, love, hard work...

This all takes time and effort. Ask yourself whether becoming holy and living the life of virtue are priorities in your life.

And, the worst part, in my mind, of Catholics not cooperating with the purification needed for the living of the life of the virtues, which, in another phrase, could be called living in the Indwelling of the Trinity as fully as possible while on earth, is that without persons exhibiting the virtues, the Church remains weak and ineffective in the world.

Can you imagine a Church full of power, changing the world, because of every individual member cooperating with grace and living in the life of the virtues? A Church of thoroughbreds?

Cultivate the life of virtue in your children. In coming posts, I shall give some concrete advice on how to do this.

To be continued...

Dark Night Posts

Dear Readers,

Most of the Dark Night posts are labelled Dark Night. Therefore, if you want to read them all together as a whole, you can. Just use the search bar.

Today, a priest gave a hint as to the needing of perfection by a small thought. He noted that if we have one virtue which we are not practising, such as patience, that means that the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which we have through baptism, is blocked. We cannot experience the fullness of the life of the virtues without purification.

Nice synchronicity, when someone says something out of the blue which one is experiencing...