Putting God Into A Box

Returning to the idea of discernment as understood by St. Ignatius, an idea which I covered in some posts earlier this year and last month, I want to emphasize a few points which may help some readers avoid the deadly fall into deceit when the times of tribulation come upon us.

One falls into deceit when one does not know one's self, and when one does not have a relationship with God. For St. Ignatius, one's relationship with God was a constant, something which "happened" all day, in every circumstance.

If one is talking with a friend, God is there in the conversation, When one is shopping, God is there with one, and when one is walking in the sunshine, God walks with one.

There is never, for the Catholic who is in sanctifying grace, a time when God is not in relationship.

For those who have been in love, we understand this permeation of love in all things, at all times.

God is conscious of us all the time. If He was not, we would not exist. In prayer, we attempt to become conscious of God, Who is with us all the time.

But, too many Catholics want to put God in a box. They do not want God to be in their living rooms, sitting by them at the computer, in the midst of a conversation.  The God-in-a-box is a safe God, a God controlled by one's own will.

Sometimes people remember their "conversion" or "reversion" experience as if that was the only time God was with them in some way.

It is good to remember important encounters with God, such as our First Communion Day, or the day one got married, or made a vow to a religious order and so on.

But, those peak moments do not define one's relationship with God.

God in one's life is not now and then, but always, all the time, everywhere.

God may be most obvious in suffering. Lately, I have encountered much I suffering and have tried to find God in that suffering.

Of course, I do find God in the suffering--the God of the Passion.

Every Friday, as part of my prayers for the Auxilium Christianorum, I pray the Litany of Humility.

Now, when one prays this, one must expect God to answer this litany. God takes us seriously when we pray.

Let me remind you of this litany. And, let me give you real examples of how God answers this, the God Who encounters us in ordinary as well as extraordinary events of our days.

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus. Then, one loses a job, and loses status, becoming an invisible 

From the desire of being loved...Then, one is passed over by another, when one wants to be especially loved 
From the desire of being extolled ...Then, no one notices one's gifts or achievements
From the desire of being honored ...Ditto, and one is ignored even in small successes
From the desire of being praised ...Deeds are done unnoticed
From the desire of being preferred to others...One's friends have no time for one's company
From the desire of being consulted ...One is either told things one already knows, or one is not consulted when one has more knowledge
From the desire of being approved ...Then, one is actually not approved of, but finds only distrust and disdain from others; the following are the tests of saints...to no longer fear even betrayal or mistrust, or being unloved....because in holiness, they have found freedom...
From the fear of being humiliated ...Christ let Himself be put in a manger
From the fear of being despised...Christ allowed Himself to be hated by His Own People
From the fear of suffering rebukes ...Christ was slapped and spit upon
From the fear of being calumniated ...Christ was accused of false teaching
From the fear of being forgotten ...The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests....
From the fear of being ridiculed ..."If you are the Son of God, come down from the Cross."
From the fear of being wronged ...Judas, a friend, betrayed Christ
From the fear of being suspected ..."Is not this the carpenter's Son?"

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I ...Finally, one takes joy in this...
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease ...Finally, one only wants to be hidden in God
That others may be chosen and I set aside ...One sits with Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane
That others may be praised and I unnoticed ...One comes to understand the truth of being lowly
That others may be preferred to me in everything...and, one rejoices in letting others be recognized over one
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…seeing that God has called one to be a little one, and not a great saint....

When one is able to fulfill the graces of this litany, a person would be completely free. God would not longer be in a box, but one would walk and talk and sleep in God constantly.

If a Catholic does not want to become truly humble, he or she should not say this prayer.

God answers this prayer and He is no longer in the box of one's own making.

Sometimes, God will take a person to the edge of Gethsemane and make one wait until one is strong enough spiritually to enter into the Garden. One can see the darkness, but not understand, until He allows one into the place of His Own suffering.

Then, and only then, does the Catholic become authentic. Until one really accepts suffering with Christ in His Passion, all is pretense and play.

Three times Christ asked Peter is he loved Him, because of the three denials of Peter.

Not only was Christ showing Peter how to forgive, but the necessity of being open to the daily encounter with God. 

It is too easy to betray God. It is too easy to put Him into a box.

Like St. Ignatius, one has to come to the knowledge that God is with us, all around us, in every circumstance, constantly.

In this realization, we come to knowledge of the self, and knowledge of God.

The more one knows one's self and knows God, the greater is one's capacity to love.

We meet Christ at Mass Who has allowed us to put Him in a box, the tabernacle.  Christ Present in the Host has become the Vulnerable God, the Hidden God in the Host. One thinks that one can manipulate this Small God. 

Those who have put God in a box cannot appreciate either spiritually or spiritually the great freedom which Christ has given us in the Eucharist.

We consume God. We become one with Him as He becomes one with us. We become the box, the tabernacle of God. We hold Him either in love and awe, or even in a darkness. For those who receive Him unworthily, (and only God can make us worthy), the Body of Christ is again, as during the Passion, put into the cell of satan, the prison of one's own making.

Christ has made Himself accessible to us in the Host. He is the God of Bethlehem's manger, the God of the prison of the Sanhedrin, the God on the Cross...

The sacrilege of receiving Christ when in serious sin is a mocking of the Passion of Christ, and a denial of His suffering.

Either one allows God to purify the body, soul, imagination, memory and will, in order to become a holy receptacle, or one mocks God by imprisoning Him in one's own self-centeredness and sin.

One loses the chance to become more like Christ, and in the narcissism of sin, one wants to make Christ into one's own image and likeness.

Only humilty and love can save one from this putting God into a box.

Once one understands and experiences love, the box of one's own self becomes a little place of heaven, the cell of contentment and peace.

But, this takes courage. 

Be a tabernacle, not a prison. Let God out of the box of selfishness, malice, mistrust, fear...let Him meet you in freedom.

He is always with us, always, desiring us to meet Him in freedom, humility and love.

All barriers, all boundaries melt away, and one becomes alive trusting in God.

Life becomes exciting and new, and one learns to live outside the box of conformity, false comfort, and selfishness.

Let God out of the box of your own making. Let Him lead you into freedom.

BTW, during the Protestant Revolt in England, the Protestants made fun of the True Presence, by referring to the Eucharist as the Jack-in-the-Box, a reference to an earlier myth that a local saint in Princes Risborough captured the devil and put him into a boot. This horrible disrespect and blasphemy of the Protestants towards the Eucharist displayed itself in the mockery of the Consecrated Hosts in many places, including the documented throwing of the Hosts on the ground at Fountains Abbey and the visitators forcing the horses to trample Christ.

They put Christ in the box of their own power, imaginations, hatred...

Those men crucified Him again and again and again...

The tabernacles of England were emptied for a long time because people wanted to put God into a box of their own making.

God is more than we know...

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....

Circumcision of The Heart

In today's Divine Office, one of the readings shows the renewal of the covenant God made with Abraham. Now, remember, the People of God had to endure slavery for years, and had to "get Egypt out of them" by wandering in the desert until they were pure of heart.

Those who grew up in slavery, except for Caleb and Joshua, did not enter the Promised Land.

To go from slavery of sin to purity of heart takes a long time, and a will to persevere. Most of the Hebrews on the way through Sinai kept falling back into sin, and the greatest sin, not trusting in Divine Providence. Even Moses sinned this sin by striking the rock three times instead of one.

When Moses renewed the covenant with the Hebrews in Sinai, he asked them to dedicate the first-born of their animals, as well as the first-born son, to God. The sign of this covenant was, and still is for the Jews, circumcision.

Circumcision supplanted first-child killing in the sacrifices to Moloch, to which I have referred on this blog before. Circumcision, the sign of the covenant, took the place of the common pagan custom of throwing one's first-born son into the fires of the demons of Canaan.

The pain of circumcision leaves after a relatively short time. But, the sign remains for the entire life of the male. God, through Moses, demanded a little suffering in dedication, and the people understood the difference. They were not to do human sacrifice.

Purity of heart begins with obedience and the will to follow God through the desert. This is from Lauds.

Isaiah 1:16-18

16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
    remove the evil of your doings
    from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
17     learn to do good;
seek justice,
    rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
    plead for the widow.

18 Come now, let us argue it out,
    says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
    they shall be like snow;
though they are red like crimson,
    they shall become like wool.

May our Lenten walk be both a cry for purity and the willingness to go into the dry land searching for God alone. Here is today's Gospel.

Matthew 5:43-48

43 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters,[a] what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Some people do not want to embrace suffering. They do not want to face any suffering, either their own or another's. It is too hard to step out of one's comfort zone and be involved with other people. But, the People of God crossing Sinai were not alone, and carried each other along the way, from slavery to freedom.

To accept suffering is to allow one's self to enter into the Sinai experience.of another person.  This experience does not bring poetry into one's life, but hard work. Cooperating with grace may be more difficult for some of us than others.

I belong, as my readers know, to the Society of the Most Sorrowful Mother, a third-order dedicated to praying for those who are in the worst type of slavery-demonic oppression, obsession and possession.

For those in these straits, life may seem like a desert experience, with rocks, heat, sand, long endless journeys which seem to lead to nowhere. They suffer daily and need prayers daily. One must be willing to enter into the desert with them and pray. This is what Our Lady did at the foot of the Cross. She entered into the suffering of her Son, and into our suffering. But, we all have freedom because of the suffering of Christ and Mary, our Co-Redemptorix. She took on herself suffering for the sake of her people, the Jews, and for the sake of all of us. Her walk to Calvary mirrors the walk to the Promised Land.

Remember it took the Israelites forty years to get to Mount Sinai, which normally would have taken forty days max for that many people to get to Sinai, and another 116 days to get to Gaza or so. One can see how the Wandering for forty years was God's Will and not the terrain. The total walking time could have been as short, without God's intervention of punishment and purification, of 156 days or so. Given the lack of modern roads, one could add another 20 days or so, and state that within 176 days of leaving Egypt, going to Sinai, and then to Gaza, the People of God could have been in the Promised Land in half a year. This suffering of these people was a really, long time. All died except for the chosen few who were pure of heart. God punished their sins with death, and with not being allowed to go into the new land prepared for them. Such is purgatory for us unless we circumcise our hearts.

From Joshua, Chapter One:

1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying, 2 ‘My servant Moses is dead. Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the Israelites. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the Great Sea in the west shall be your territory. 5 No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous; for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful. 9 I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.’

10 Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, 11 ‘Pass through the camp, and command the people: “Prepare your provisions; for in three days you are to cross over the Jordan, to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God gives you to possess.”’

12 To the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh Joshua said,13 ‘Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, “The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest, and will give you this land.” 14 Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan. But all the warriors among you shall cross over armed before your kindred and shall help them, 15 until theLord gives rest to your kindred as well as to you, and they too take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to your own land and take possession of it, the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan to the east.’

16 They answered Joshua: ‘All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 17 Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses! 18 Whoever rebels against your orders and disobeys your words, whatever you command, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.’

Sin keeps us from moving quickly to the goal of holiness. Without God's grace, we would be stuck in Sinai. But, a purgatorial life on earth must be sought for perfection, and it is better to go through purgatory now rather than later, as one helps the Church more directly when one is purified. Joshua was given a particular grace for purity of heart. He allowed his heart to be circumcised.

Deuteronomy 30:6

6 Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.

Perfection Series VIII Part XXIII Pivotal Love

Raissa writes a hard paragraph and some may be able to identify with these words.

If anyone is able to educe from a human love a genuinely unselfish and spiritual love, even though the roots of this love are in the whole man, his love is pure of sin. A very rare love. And which presupposes that God's place is reserved in the centre of the soul, or at the summit of the spirit; and which is like a fulcrum God uses in human nature in order to transfigure it.

A pure love is one without concupiscence, a love completely chaste. Now, this type of love is possible in marriage as well as in the single state. It is easier for those who are celibate to find this type of love, which is why the call to the convent or monastery is a more perfect way.

To find this unselfish and spiritual love, one must suffer the loss, even the absence of consolation from the beloved. Raissa sacrificed her intense love for Jacques so that he could do the work God called him to do in both Europe and other parts of the world. Why this love is so rare is that humans desire both consolation and response in love.

Psychologists do not like unrequited love or sacrificial love unless they understand this sublime call. Few do and those who do not criticize intense love without fulfillment, as it this type of love were abnormal.

This type of love is supernatural, above nature. Psychologists for the most part deny the soul. Therefore, they cannot understand the value of sacrificial love. They cannot see that God is the center of the soul and that the person aspires to love God in purity of heart and purity of mind.

God uses human love as a "fulcrum", an essential element, like the pivot on which the lever rests.

For some, this human love may have been consummated in a marriage. For others, this love remains unanswered, but still the central point allowing a person to come totally to God.

Raissa calls this love rare. I call it necessary today in this time of growing persecution and trials.

Without Catholics who are willing to "go the distance" in denying self and turning to contemplative prayer, the Church will not have the power she needs to face the coming tribulation. Saints are necessary now more than ever, and this type of pure, selfish love is more necessary now than ever.

The martyrs understood this type of love. They underwent suffering without receiving human love. They were more than rejected, they were tortured and killed for the sake of Love.  They "went the distance".

I pray that those called to suffer in this way find support in their families, from their spouses. It is extremely hard to face this intense way alone, as I know from experience. Yes, one is alone in the purification, but to have needs met and to have protection are necessities. Solitude demands protection.

It is interesting that Raissa's spiritual director told Jacques that she was not to change her schedule or activities when in this deep suffering. This is my cross, to have to change, to move, to not be still while called to this sacrificial love. Please join me in prayer for that stability, which forms the basis for purgation in convents and monasteries. Schedules and routine free a person up to enter into the depths of the interior life.

to be continued...

Reposting Day for The Sake of The Remnant

Monday, 28 January 2013

Part Five: Saints on the Illuminative State-on the way to the one thing necessary

Sometimes people do not read footnotes in texts.

I do. Garrigou-Lagrange has these three in his section on the Illuminative State, which I think will be helpful for all of us.  Garrigou-Lagrange's next chapter highlight St. Catherine and Bl. Henry, and here are some of his extensive points. My boldface type highlights.................

8. In the prologue of his Rule, St. Benedict wrote: "Let us therefore at length arise, since the Scriptures stir us up, saying: 'It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep' (Rom. 13:11). And our eyes being now open to the divine light, let us hear with wonderment the divine voice admonishing us, in that it cries out daily and says: 'Today if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts.' " That is to say: It is time to rise from the sleep of negligence and to walk courageously in the way of God.

Garrigou-Lagrange rightly and clearly expresses that the Illuminative State is a second conversion. This waking up is absolutely a gift from God, but one has to cooperate with this.

It does not happen if one is NOT ORTHODOX and if one is orthodox and falls away from the Church, the Illuminative State ends in heresy and condemnation. Now, one may be "outside" the Catholic Church and receive great graces for the very purpose of God calling one to become Catholic. This can be a painful decision.

One falls because of pride, mostly, and stupidly thinking that one is arriving at these stages by one's own efforts and not by grace.

9. We shall see farther on that, as St. Catherine of Siena says in her Dialogue (chaps. 60, 63), the second conversion of the apostles took place more properly at the end of the Passion when Peter wept over his denial, and that Pentecost was like a third conversion or more properly a transformation of the soul, which marks the entrance into the unitive way.

This is absolutely spot on.

Garrigou-Lagrange should be canonized. His insights as to Catherine of Siena's Dialogue, a book I recommend to all, shows that Catherine received graces for the Unitive Way, which I have not discussed yet.

One cannot enter the Illuminative State without purgation and one finishes purgation in the Illuminative State.

No pain, no gain. Sorry, but the Protestants miss this point by insisting that a sign of election is wealth. Nope.

I shall write about the Third Transformation when I have exhausted the Illuminative State explanations. I have never personally met a living man, woman or child in the Unitive State, although I have met several in the Illuminative State. Age, by the way, does not matter. Catherine died at 33.

Here is G-L on her contribution: Christ is speaking to Catherine. 

We read in chapter 60: "Some there are who have become faithful servants, serving Me with fidelity without servile fear of punishment, but rather with love. This very love, however, if they serve Me with a view to their own profit, or the delight and pleasure which they find in Me, is imperfect. Dost thou know what proves the imperfection of this love? The withdrawal of the consolations which they found in Me, and the insufficiency and short duration of their love for their neighbor, which grows weak by degrees, and oft-times disappears. Toward Me their love grows weak when, on occasion, in order to exercise them in virtue and raise them above their imperfection, I withdraw from their minds My consolation and allow them to fall into battles and perplexities. This I do so that, coming to perfect self-knowledge, they may know that of themselves they are nothing and have no grace, and, accordingly in time of battle fly to Me as their benefactor, seeking Me alone, with true humility, for which purpose I treat them thus, withdrawing from them consolation indeed, but not grace. At such a time these weak ones of whom I speak relax their energy, impatiently turning backward, and so sometimes abandon, under color of virtue, many of their exercises, saying to themselves: This labor does not profit me. All this they do, because they feel themselves deprived of mental consolation. Such a soul acts imperfectly, for she has not yet unwound the bandage of spiritual self-love, for had she unwound it, she would see that, in truth, everything proceeds from Me, that no leaf of a tree falls to the ground without My providence, and that what I give and promise to My creatures, I give and promise to them for their sanctification, which is the good and the end for which I created them."

and again,

In chapter 63 of The Dialogue, the saint says, in speaking of the passage from mercenary to filial love: "Every perfection and every virtue proceeds from charity, and charity is nourished by humility, which results from the knowledge and holy hatred of self, that is, sensuality. . . . To arrive thereat. . . a man must exercise himself in the extirpation of his perverse self-will, both spiritual and temporal, hiding himself in his own house, as did Peter, who, after the sin of denying My Son, began to weep. Yet his lamentations were imperfect, and remained so until after the forty days, that is, until after the Ascension. But when My Truth returned, to Me in His humanity, Peter and the others concealed themselves in the house awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit, which My Truth had promised them. They remained barred in from fear, because the soul always fears until she arrives at true love. But when they had persevered in fasting and in humble and continual prayer, until they had received the abundance of the Holy Spirit, they lost their fear, and followed and preached Christ crucified."
St. Catherine of Siena shows in this passage that the imperfect soul which loves the Lord with a love that is still mercenary, ought to follow Peter's example after his denial of Christ. Not infrequently this time Providence permits us also to fall into some visible fault to humiliate us and oblige us to enter into ourselves, y at as Peter did, when immediately after his fall, seeing that Jesus looked at him, he "wept bitterly." (1)


And more, and a warning: this second conversion is not obvious, nor is it necessarily "charismatic".


The second conversion may also take place, though we have no grave sin to expiate, for example, at a time when we are suffering from an injustice, or a calumny, which, under divine grace, awakens in us not sentiments of vengeance, but hunger and thirst for the justice of God. In such a case, the generous forgiving of a grave injury sometimes draws down on the soul of the one who pardons, a great grace, which makes him enter a higher region of the spiritual life. The soul then receives a new insight into divine things and an impulse which it did not know before. David received such a grace when he pardoned Semei who had outraged and cursed him, while throwing stones at him.(3)

This has been in my experience and forgiveness opens the door to grace. But, this
"yes" opens the door to great suffering as well.

A more profound insight into the life of the soul may originate also on the occasion of the death of a dear one, or of a disaster, or of a great rebuff, when anything occurs which is of a nature to reveal the vanity of earthly things and by contrast the importance of the one thing necessary, union with God, the prelude of the life of heaven.

In her Dialogue St. Catherine also speaks often of the necessity of leaving the imperfect state in which a person serves God more or less through interest and for his own satisfaction, and in which he wishes to go to God the Fatherwithout passing through Jesus crucified.(4) To leave this imperfect state, the soul which still seeks itself must be converted that it may cease to seek itself and may truly go in search of God by the way of abnegation, which is that of profound peace.

There is no short-cut.

Staying with the Dominicans today, on the Feast of the Greatest, I pick up on G-L's reference to Henry Suso, who I first discovered in about 1980. Here is a section of his writings to help us. Again, read footnotes, as they are good for you! They led up to the following chapter.

10. For example, the second conversion of Blessed Henry Suso, of St. Catherine of Genoa, of Blessed Anthony Neyrot, O.P., and of many others, is well known.

The works of Blessed Henry Suso contain a number of instructions relative to the second conversion. He himself experienced this conversion after a few years of religious life, during which he had slipped into some negligences. Particular attention ought to be given to what he says about the necessity of a more interior and deep Christian life in religious who give themselves most exclusively to study, and in others who are chiefly attentive to exterior observances and austerities. In the divine light he saw "these two classes of persons circling about the Savior's cross, without being able to reach Him," (5) because both groups sought themselves, either in study or in exterior observances, and because they judged each other without charity. He understood then that he should remain in complete self-abnegation, ready to accept all that God might will, and to accept it with love, at the same time practicing great fraternal charity. (6)

Do not circle the Cross. Embrace it.

And I end with a helpful footnote and also section on St. Thomas Aquinas.......

15. This mode of acting conforms perfectly to what St. Thomas says of the difference between acquired prudence (a true virtue, already described by Aristotle) and infused prudence. and the gift of counsel (IIa IIae, q.47, a.14 and q. 52). Should a man tend to perfection under the almost exclusive direction of acquired prudence (which is, nevertheless, not that of the flesh), he would never reach true Christian perfection, which belongs to the supernatural order; such perfection requires the frequent exercise of infused prudence and of the gift of counsel. These three sources of actions (habitus) are among themselves a little like what agility of the fingers, the acquired art which is in the practical intellect, and musical inspiration are in the musician. Without art, properly so called, and this inspiration, a man will certainly never produce a masterpiece, and will never be able even to comprehend one.

And, so that we do not become full of pride, God allows us to fall......

In connection with Peter's second conversion, we should recall that St. Thomas teaches (2) that even after a serious sin, if a man has a truly fervent contrition proportionate to the degree of grace lost, he recovers this degree of grace; he may even receive a higher degree if he has a still more fervent contrition. He is, therefore, not obliged to recommence his ascent from the very beginning, but continues it, taking it up again at the point he had reached when he fell. A mountain climber who stumbles halfway up, rises immediately, and continues the ascent. The same is true in the spiritual order. Everything leads us to think that by the fervor of his repentance Peter not only recovered the degree of grace that he had lost, but was raised to a higher degree of the supernatural life. The Lord permitted this fall only to cure him of his presumption so that he might become more humble and thereafter place his confidence, not in himself, but in God. Thus, the humiliated Peter on his knees weeping over his sin is greater than the Peter on Thabor, who did not as yet sufficiently know his frailty.

To be perfect is to be conformed to Christ. We become like Him. We are His Face in the world...........

On Mortification

It has been almost one year since I gave up chocolate, desserts and ales/beer for penance for three people who are agnostics. I share this with you to give you ideas on mortification.

Can you believe I have not lost any weight, and have actually gained weight while eating considerably less?

Well, when one chooses mortifications, the side-effects are up to God. I did not give up these things to lose weight.

I was talking to a friend about mortification recently. This is a misunderstood term. Mortification are things done over and above suffering. These must be voluntary and freely-chosen to gain merit.

Without mortification, we do not enter into the purgation of the senses or the spirit. We always will make an excuse for indulging in something.

Indulging one's self could be sin, or it could be an opportunity to stop and say "no".

One type of mortification could be not saying something in defense of one's self when one is in the right and the other person in the wrong. Another type of mortification could be serving someone one does not like. That irritable person at work? Buy them a cuppa.

Think about mortifications.

Can You Sacrifice One Thing for One Soul?

Most of us cradle Catholics have one or more than one person in our families who are apostate Catholics. These are our siblings, cousins, even parents, who have fallen away from the great baptismal grace and the gifts of the virtues, endangering their chance for salvation.

There are hundreds of causes for the letting go of the greatest gift God can give someone-membership in the Catholic Church-salvation through the graces of the Church.

For some, it is a lack of belief. For some, it is contraception. For some, it is fornication or a gay lifestyle. For some, it is just plain laziness.

I have an idea for this weekend. Choose one really hard thing to give up for one day for one of the lost souls in your families.

Here are a few suggestions.

Give up the Super Bowl. Give up the parties.

Give up talking about it. Give up watching anything to do with it.

Why?

If you can do this, you will be denying yourself the fun and comfort of something shared by millions of Americans.

Millions of Catholics no longer share the possibility of eternal life with God because of mortal sin.

Can you deny one thing for the sake of the dead soul in your family? One thing?

Some of you may be saying, "But why the Super Bowl? Why not just beer for the day?"

Because it is HARD.

Pray about this. For one soul, for one loved person in your family who needs you to sacrifice this weekend.

Hitler was a cradle Catholic. Maybe no one ever did anything really hard for his conversion.

Stalin and Mussolini were cradle Catholics. Henry VIII was a cradle Catholic.

Pray for those you know who have given up the grace of being Catholics. And, do something difficult for them this weekend.

Padre Pio said this.

"Who can assure us that we will be alive tomorrow? Let us listen to the voice of our conscience, to the voice of the royal prophet: "Today, if you hear God's voice, harden not your heart." Let us not put off from one moment to another (what we should do) because the (next moment) is not yet ours. "

Part Five: Saints on the Illuminative State-on the way to the one thing necessary

Sometimes people do not read footnotes in texts.

I do. Garrigou-Lagrange has these three in his section on the Illuminative State, which I think will be helpful for all of us.  Garrigou-Lagrange's next chapter highlight St. Catherine and Bl. Henry, and here are some of his extensive points. My boldface type highlights.................

8. In the prologue of his Rule, St. Benedict wrote: "Let us therefore at length arise, since the Scriptures stir us up, saying: 'It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep' (Rom. 13:11). And our eyes being now open to the divine light, let us hear with wonderment the divine voice admonishing us, in that it cries out daily and says: 'Today if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts.' " That is to say: It is time to rise from the sleep of negligence and to walk courageously in the way of God.

Garrigou-Lagrange rightly and clearly expresses that the Illuminative State is a second conversion. This waking up is absolutely a gift from God, but one has to cooperate with this.

It does not happen if one is NOT ORTHODOX and if one is orthodox and falls away from the Church, the Illuminative State ends in heresy and condemnation. Now, one may be "outside" the Catholic Church and receive great graces for the very purpose of God calling one to become Catholic. This can be a painful decision.

One falls because of pride, mostly, and stupidly thinking that one is arriving at these stages by one's own efforts and not by grace.

9. We shall see farther on that, as St. Catherine of Siena says in her Dialogue (chaps. 60, 63), the second conversion of the apostles took place more properly at the end of the Passion when Peter wept over his denial, and that Pentecost was like a third conversion or more properly a transformation of the soul, which marks the entrance into the unitive way.

This is absolutely spot on.

Garrigou-Lagrange should be canonized. His insights as to Catherine of Siena's Dialogue, a book I recommend to all, shows that Catherine received graces for the Unitive Way, which I have not discussed yet.

One cannot enter the Illuminative State without purgation and one finishes purgation in the Illuminative State.

No pain, no gain. Sorry, but the Protestants miss this point by insisting that a sign of election is wealth. Nope.

I shall write about the Third Transformation when I have exhausted the Illuminative State explanations. I have never personally met a living man, woman or child in the Unitive State, although I have met several in the Illuminative State. Age, by the way, does not matter. Catherine died at 33.

Here is G-L on her contribution: Christ is speaking to Catherine. 

We read in chapter 60: "Some there are who have become faithful servants, serving Me with fidelity without servile fear of punishment, but rather with love. This very love, however, if they serve Me with a view to their own profit, or the delight and pleasure which they find in Me, is imperfect. Dost thou know what proves the imperfection of this love? The withdrawal of the consolations which they found in Me, and the insufficiency and short duration of their love for their neighbor, which grows weak by degrees, and oft-times disappears. Toward Me their love grows weak when, on occasion, in order to exercise them in virtue and raise them above their imperfection, I withdraw from their minds My consolation and allow them to fall into battles and perplexities. This I do so that, coming to perfect self-knowledge, they may know that of themselves they are nothing and have no grace, and, accordingly in time of battle fly to Me as their benefactor, seeking Me alone, with true humility, for which purpose I treat them thus, withdrawing from them consolation indeed, but not grace. At such a time these weak ones of whom I speak relax their energy, impatiently turning backward, and so sometimes abandon, under color of virtue, many of their exercises, saying to themselves: This labor does not profit me. All this they do, because they feel themselves deprived of mental consolation. Such a soul acts imperfectly, for she has not yet unwound the bandage of spiritual self-love, for had she unwound it, she would see that, in truth, everything proceeds from Me, that no leaf of a tree falls to the ground without My providence, and that what I give and promise to My creatures, I give and promise to them for their sanctification, which is the good and the end for which I created them."

and again,

In chapter 63 of The Dialogue, the saint says, in speaking of the passage from mercenary to filial love: "Every perfection and every virtue proceeds from charity, and charity is nourished by humility, which results from the knowledge and holy hatred of self, that is, sensuality. . . . To arrive thereat. . . a man must exercise himself in the extirpation of his perverse self-will, both spiritual and temporal, hiding himself in his own house, as did Peter, who, after the sin of denying My Son, began to weep. Yet his lamentations were imperfect, and remained so until after the forty days, that is, until after the Ascension. But when My Truth returned, to Me in His humanity, Peter and the others concealed themselves in the house awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit, which My Truth had promised them. They remained barred in from fear, because the soul always fears until she arrives at true love. But when they had persevered in fasting and in humble and continual prayer, until they had received the abundance of the Holy Spirit, they lost their fear, and followed and preached Christ crucified."
St. Catherine of Siena shows in this passage that the imperfect soul which loves the Lord with a love that is still mercenary, ought to follow Peter's example after his denial of Christ. Not infrequently this time Providence permits us also to fall into some visible fault to humiliate us and oblige us to enter into ourselves, y at as Peter did, when immediately after his fall, seeing that Jesus looked at him, he "wept bitterly." (1)


And more, and a warning: this second conversion is not obvious, nor is it necessarily "charismatic".


The second conversion may also take place, though we have no grave sin to expiate, for example, at a time when we are suffering from an injustice, or a calumny, which, under divine grace, awakens in us not sentiments of vengeance, but hunger and thirst for the justice of God. In such a case, the generous forgiving of a grave injury sometimes draws down on the soul of the one who pardons, a great grace, which makes him enter a higher region of the spiritual life. The soul then receives a new insight into divine things and an impulse which it did not know before. David received such a grace when he pardoned Semei who had outraged and cursed him, while throwing stones at him.(3)

This has been in my experience and forgiveness opens the door to grace. But, this
"yes" opens the door to great suffering as well.

A more profound insight into the life of the soul may originate also on the occasion of the death of a dear one, or of a disaster, or of a great rebuff, when anything occurs which is of a nature to reveal the vanity of earthly things and by contrast the importance of the one thing necessary, union with God, the prelude of the life of heaven.

In her Dialogue St. Catherine also speaks often of the necessity of leaving the imperfect state in which a person serves God more or less through interest and for his own satisfaction, and in which he wishes to go to God the Father without passing through Jesus crucified.(4) To leave this imperfect state, the soul which still seeks itself must be converted that it may cease to seek itself and may truly go in search of God by the way of abnegation, which is that of profound peace.

There is no short-cut.

Staying with the Dominicans today, on the Feast of the Greatest, I pick up on G-L's reference to Henry Suso, who I first discovered in about 1980. Here is a section of his writings to help us. Again, read footnotes, as they are good for you! They led up to the following chapter.

10. For example, the second conversion of Blessed Henry Suso, of St. Catherine of Genoa, of Blessed Anthony Neyrot, O.P., and of many others, is well known.

The works of Blessed Henry Suso contain a number of instructions relative to the second conversion. He himself experienced this conversion after a few years of religious life, during which he had slipped into some negligences. Particular attention ought to be given to what he says about the necessity of a more interior and deep Christian life in religious who give themselves most exclusively to study, and in others who are chiefly attentive to exterior observances and austerities. In the divine light he saw "these two classes of persons circling about the Savior's cross, without being able to reach Him," (5) because both groups sought themselves, either in study or in exterior observances, and because they judged each other without charity. He understood then that he should remain in complete self-abnegation, ready to accept all that God might will, and to accept it with love, at the same time practicing great fraternal charity. (6)

Do not circle the Cross. Embrace it.

And I end with a helpful footnote and also section on St. Thomas Aquinas.......

15. This mode of acting conforms perfectly to what St. Thomas says of the difference between acquired prudence (a true virtue, already described by Aristotle) and infused prudence. and the gift of counsel (IIa IIae, q.47, a.14 and q. 52). Should a man tend to perfection under the almost exclusive direction of acquired prudence (which is, nevertheless, not that of the flesh), he would never reach true Christian perfection, which belongs to the supernatural order; such perfection requires the frequent exercise of infused prudence and of the gift of counsel. These three sources of actions (habitus) are among themselves a little like what agility of the fingers, the acquired art which is in the practical intellect, and musical inspiration are in the musician. Without art, properly so called, and this inspiration, a man will certainly never produce a masterpiece, and will never be able even to comprehend one.

And, so that we do not become full of pride, God allows us to fall......

In connection with Peter's second conversion, we should recall that St. Thomas teaches (2) that even after a serious sin, if a man has a truly fervent contrition proportionate to the degree of grace lost, he recovers this degree of grace; he may even receive a higher degree if he has a still more fervent contrition. He is, therefore, not obliged to recommence his ascent from the very beginning, but continues it, taking it up again at the point he had reached when he fell. A mountain climber who stumbles halfway up, rises immediately, and continues the ascent. The same is true in the spiritual order. Everything leads us to think that by the fervor of his repentance Peter not only recovered the degree of grace that he had lost, but was raised to a higher degree of the supernatural life. The Lord permitted this fall only to cure him of his presumption so that he might become more humble and thereafter place his confidence, not in himself, but in God. Thus, the humiliated Peter on his knees weeping over his sin is greater than the Peter on Thabor, who did not as yet sufficiently know his frailty.

To be perfect is to be conformed to Christ. We become like Him. We are His Face in the world...........