Friday, 4 July 2014
Thoughts on The Fourth
Today, is perhaps, the saddest July 4th I have ever experienced. I am saddened by the false sense of freedom and the lack of spirituality among my people. On this day, we, as the Church in America, should be fasting and praying for God to withhold His Hand of punishment, which is coming. We should be entreating Our Lady, The Immaculate Conception, our patron, for repentance and melted hearts.
Few see what is coming.
Few.
Few see what is coming.
Few.
The Answer Is Love
I have entered into a deep suffering which I cannot explain. For the first time, I experienced a horror of abandonment not from my own experience, but from the experience of Christ on the Cross. Remember, His own people lead Him to death and abandoned Him. He allowed me to experience a bit of what He did-a blackness which is only accepted in love and mercy.
When Christ went down into Hell to lead the righteous into heaven, all saw Him as the One Who won the war over Satan and his minions. But, before victory, before the completion of salvation, of redemption, Christ felt the depths of rejection.
But, love swallows up such deep, deep pain.
Remember, He was allowed to feel, to experience what we do through sin-our own sin and the sins of others.
I can say no more...
When Christ went down into Hell to lead the righteous into heaven, all saw Him as the One Who won the war over Satan and his minions. But, before victory, before the completion of salvation, of redemption, Christ felt the depths of rejection.
But, love swallows up such deep, deep pain.
Remember, He was allowed to feel, to experience what we do through sin-our own sin and the sins of others.
I can say no more...
Thursday, 3 July 2014
Are you paying attention? Two items....
and
http://www.christianpost.com/news/historic-127-year-old-catholic-church-is-now-a-mosque-122471/
Warm Hearts and Warm Food
I am in Davenport, Iowa for two weeks. Sitting in the Locust Street HyVee, I have just met Dan, the manager. I have known Kelly, who works here, since my son was a kid eating tons of Chinese dinners.
The new cafe is fantastic, with free wifi and excellent food.
Breakfast on Thursday is made up of two eggs, hash browns and two large pieces of whole-wheat bread, that is, four slices of thick toast.
Price? $4.99 plus a discount.
And the coffee is great.
Some come here to watch the sports television and eat-so IOWA. Tennis is on now. WIMBLEDON.
If you are in the area, go here and say I sent you. It is crowded-always a good sign for cafes.
Great service as well...It ain't purdy on the outside, but where there are warm hearts and warm food, plus wifi, that is OK with me.
The new cafe is fantastic, with free wifi and excellent food.
Breakfast on Thursday is made up of two eggs, hash browns and two large pieces of whole-wheat bread, that is, four slices of thick toast.
Price? $4.99 plus a discount.
And the coffee is great.
Some come here to watch the sports television and eat-so IOWA. Tennis is on now. WIMBLEDON.
If you are in the area, go here and say I sent you. It is crowded-always a good sign for cafes.
Great service as well...It ain't purdy on the outside, but where there are warm hearts and warm food, plus wifi, that is OK with me.
The Inside, Not The Outside
The Dominican writes this:
“Do what we may, we here on earth see the spiritual and the divine only through
their reflection in material things. It is owing to this that we attach immense
importance to material happenings, such as the loss of an eye, whereas events
of the spiritual world, with consequences that are incalculable, are allowed to
pass almost unnoticed, such as an act of charity in the order of goodness, or
in the sphere of evil a mortal sin. In other words, we see the spiritual and
the diine as in the twilight, in the shadow of the sensible…”
A priest friend of mine told me months ago that the
psychologists and psychiatrists connected to a famous, local, university
hospital were worse than useless at curing their patients. He noted that they
only attempt to cure the physical, and, as agnostics or atheists, ignore the
real source of many mental problems, the soul.
His interpretation was shared with person who is dealing
with a bi-polar son and this woman disagreed, as she could not see the
connection, the underlying reality that the soul forms the body, and that
disturbances in the soul will, obviously, affect the brain.
The glorification of material science over theology and
philosophy creates a false science of psychology, unless this newer science
deals with the soul.
God in the greatness of His all-illuminating Wisdom sees the
material in the greater context of the spiritual.
Here is Garrigou-Lagrange again: “It is not through the body that God views the soul of the just; it is
rather through the soul that He views the body as a sort of radiation of the
soul. Hence, His sight is not dazzled by outward show, by wealth and its
trappings; what counts with God is charity. A beggar in rags but with the heart
of a saint, is of incomparably greater worth in the sight of God than a Caesar
in all the splendour of his human glory.”
Great saints on the inside, as it were, but hidden from the
sight of so many….
To be continued…
Sometimes, it is difficult to smile at Him
Years ago, the woman who stood up in my wedding as matron of
honor told me to “transcend difficulties”. I had to do this, as circumstances
forced me to do so. This great lady was
almost my mother’s age, but a good friend of mine. She had been raised in India London
She and her husband took care of her mother until that old
woman died. Her mother never learned to cook, or sew, or clean, as when she
grew up, she had seventeen servants and lived in the luxury of the English in India
This type of transcendence and self-control only comes with
humility and prayer. There is a reality about people who live transcendently.
Garrigou-Lagrange writes that we must become closer to God daily in simplicity
of heart, “…without which there can be no contemplation of God and no true
love.”
What does he mean by this? The death of the ego is the
beginning of this emptying of the heart. Egotism must go, must, as I have
written many times on this blog.
If we are “too full of ourselves”, there is no room for God.
We must not desire attention, or fame, or status, or riches. We must find
contentment in what is given to us. We must transcend the trials put on our
paths. We need to meditate, and then, to contemplate.
Contemplation is not meditation, again, as I have noted on
this blog. Contemplation, whether active, or passive, demands focusing on God
Himself, and not on ourselves.
Do we think of ourselves and our problem before Christ in
Adoration, or do we immerse ourselves in Him? Do we come with the proverbial
laundry list of prayers, or do we just, like Mary of Bethany, sit in His
Presence?
Purity of heart, mind, and soul comes with a combination of
prayer and sheer gift. Some great saints have these gifts early. Most of us
must walk the road of travail and suffering to get to such purity. We must choose mortification, however, as the
given trials may not be enough.
We may not become great saints, few of us will be Padre Pios
or Mother Teresas. However, all of us are called to be saints and that means we
are all called to purification and perfection.
It is rather ironic that I always think and sometimes write that “this is my
last post on perfection” but I can now see that as I learn and grow, taking the
long road through suffering and dying to self.
May God be patient with me. Let me return to Mother Teresa of Calcutta
My favorite photo of Mother Teresa is not one of her with
her beloved dying, or with St. John Paul II, but one of her alone in prayer.
Like all saints, like Christ, she needed to be alone with God. Sister Agnes, her
helper, said once, “Every day we have
Mass, half an hour of meditation, morning prayer, afternoon prayer, and in the
evening we have a full hour of Adoration. It would not be possible to work
otherwise. There must be a spiritual motive. You can work only for God. You can
never work for any man.”
Mother Teresa said, “That
is why we begin and end the day with prayer, because, when we pray, we are
touching the body of Christ. You people
in the world might not have the time or leisure to pray. It is a beautiful gift
of God for us to have that amount of time.”
We must make time. We must.
Mother Teresa also said, “I
am not afraid to say I am in love with Jesus because He is everything to me.”
For all Catholics, our work should be for Jesus, and He can
be All in All.
Here is the voice of a simple heart. Mother Teresa states
that chastity is “undivided love”, that poverty is “freedom”, that total
surrender is “obedience”.
“If I belong to God,
if I belong to Christ, then He must be able to use me. That is obedience. ….If
you really belong to the work that has been entrusted to you, then you must do
it with your whole heart. And you can
bring salvation only by being honest and by really working with God. It is not
how much we are doing, but how much love, how much honesty, how much faith, is
put into doing it. It makes no difference what we are doing. What you are
doing, I cannot do, and what I am doing, you cannot do. But all of us are doing
what God have given us to do. ….”
And, I love Mother Teresa for saying this-as I have
experienced the disrespect which comes to the poor, even from priests, sadly.
“The poor are not respected. People do not think that the
poor can be treated as people who are lovable, as people like you and I. You
know, the young are beginning to understand. They want to serve with their
hands. And to love with their hearts. To the full, not superficially.”
I believe this as I believe that in the remnant will be many
young people who have sought and found love.
And, Mother Teresa’s comment about doing the work God has
called us to do is also a call to humility. Sometimes people want desperately
to do something big for God. But, sometimes, we are called to do something
small for God.
I blog. I pray. I do dishes, clean, do laundry, make coffee,
take walks. Nothing grand in all of this… but more than that, I love. I am
learning daily to live in love, to choose love, to walk, clean, make coffee in
love. I blog in love, as that is what God wants me to do right now.
There is nothing to do but to love.
Some of us learn this by loving and being loved by another.
Some of us learn this directly from Jesus, the Bridegroom. Either way, love
hurts.
“True love hurts. It
always has to hurt. It must be painful to love someone, painful to leave them, you
might have to die for them. ….A young American couple told me once, ‘You know a
lot about love; you must be married.’ And I said, Yes, but sometimes I find it
difficult to smile at Him.”
Sweating the Small Stuff
I have been observing something in the past week, and I
asked a question concerning this observation. I am typing this in a car, in a
parking lot, waiting for people. I never waste time. If I am waiting for the
bus, I say a rosary. We do not have much time to become holy.
Here is the question and the answer;
Why are so many people upset about small things? Why are so
many American preoccupied with trivia and with the minutiae of passing things?
Garrigou-Lagrange answers this question:
“God’s simplicity…is
an unalterable unity, the simplicity of unchanging wisdom and of the purest and
strongest love of the good, remaining ever the same and infinitely surpassing
our susceptibility and unstable opinions…
The complex soul, on
the other hand, is one that bases all its judgments on the varying impressions
caused by the emotions and that desires things from motives of self-interest
with its changing caprices, now clinging to them obstinately, now changing with
every mood or time and circumstances. And whereas the complex soul is agitated
by mere trifles, the soul that has acquired its wisdom and unselfish love, is
always at rest.”
There is an entire group of people who have not found this
wisdom and unselfish love, which brings rest. They complain, almost constantly,
and they lack simplicity of heart and soul and mind.
Garrigou-Lagrange refers to Bossuet, “This simplicity, says Bossuet, enables an introverted soul to
comprehend even the heights of God, the ways of Providence, the unfathomable
mysteries to which a complex soul are a scandal, the mysteries of infinite
justice and mercy, and the supreme liberty of the divine good pleasure. “
This tendency to gripe and be negative among some shows me
that those who are speaking are hurt, wounded, far from peace of mind and heart
and soul.
How to bring such fellow humans to this peace is another
question. One can begin with prayer.
Some of my relatives hate poverty so much that they cannot
see the value of not having things, the freedom which the non-accumulation of
wealth can bring. All they see is the shame, or the lack of status. They do not
talk to me.
But, for those of us who have been or are being stripped of
things and status, poverty is sheer gift. One cannot, as Garrigou-Lagrange
notes, fall into naïveté, or shallowness, or stupidity, but one can choose a
more perfect way, the shortcut to perfection. If God chooses it for us, it is
less perfect, but can lead to perfection.
Garrigou-Lagrange points to the holiness of Jesus for a
model of simplicity. He recalls Christ’s answer to the Pharisees, “’Which of you shall convince me of sin…’
Their duplicity aroused His holy indignation: ‘Woe to you scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites; because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men, for
you yourselves do not enter in; and those that are going in, you suffer not to
enter…Woe to you, blind guides…you are like to whited sepulchers, which
outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men’s bones, and
of all filthiness…’”
Of course, the key to this holiness is humility, and the key
to not being complex is humility.
Pride causes complaining and irritation. Ask yourself this
question today: “About what do I get upset?”
Sadly, priests are not
helping the elderly get to heaven. Too many priests are the blind guides.
They have not pursued holiness, and therefore, they do not know how to help
others get there. Many older people have not reached wisdom and unselfish love.
Why?
Why? Why?
To be continued…
Attributes continued...
Attributes Continued….
Simplicity must be sought. For some, it comes “naturally,”
or at least, it seems like that. Saints like St. John Vianney or Our Lady Mary
seem to have “natural” simplicity. But, this focus on God is a great grace. It
is not only the grace of humility but the grace of focusing on love.
Love is the answer, as both Julian of Norwich and T. S.
Eliot, who repeats her ideas, note. Love is the answer to all pride and
negativity. Those who complain focus only on themselves and their own grievances.
They have fallen into habits of selfishness, either repeating past hurts or
dwelling on a lack of forgiveness. Love forgives and forgets.
Sometimes such negativity is a sign of depression, or some
mental illness, but mostly, it is a sign of a lack of understanding of the love
of God.
Garrigou-Lagrange states something important: “In us temperament is determined in one
particular direction inclining us either to indulgence or to severity, to a
broad and comprehensive view of things, or to practical details, but never both
ways at once. If, then, the soul with perfect simplicity practices at one and
the same time virtues that are apparently extreme opposites, it is because
almighty God is very intimately present in the soul, impressing His likeness
upon it.”
I pray for these graces.
I think of St. Paul
Can we all desire this gift of freedom, of simplicity in
Christ? Simplicity is one of the
Attributes of God, which is most difficult to understand. Sometimes it is
easier to understand something by looking at the opposite. See my attribute
series.
When I am really old, I want to be peaceful with whatever
comes: greater poverty, illness, weakness, loneliness, whatever.
One does not wait until old age to practice peace. One finds
it early so that it can become a habit, a way of life, the life of being
humble.
To be continued…
Fools for Christ
Perhaps those of us who have suffered different types of
loss and failure can more easily crawl to the Feet of Christ and beg mercy.
Perhaps those little ones, who have never been tempted to greatness, or high
status, or have never had the chance to become rich are more fortunate than
those who have been blessed by God. God does bless many people with gifts or
riches, and these can be a way to holiness.
For example, to those
to whom much is given, much is expected. Therefore, those who have been
given many things are called to be generous or to give it all away and be, like
St. Francis or St. Bernard, and choose voluntary poverty.
The way to holiness is
as distinct and as unique as every person ever created.
The lives of the saints reveal the lifestyles of those who
were rich and those who were poor. The lives of the saints reveals those who
were middle class, those in business, in the military, in teaching, artists,
actors, farmers, stewards.
But, whatever we do and whoever we are, we are all called to
perfection, which is our participation in God.
Because of time constraints in my life now, I am not going
to write about the Attributes of God as Infinite, Immense, Eternal, or
Incomprehensible. I shall return to those later.
Skipping a few chapters to “ The Wisdom of God” and “The Will and Holy Love of God” in
Garrigou-Lagrange’s book, I want to emphasize a few ideas from these two
chapters before moving back to a review of what I highlighted a month ago on
Divine Providence.
Garrigou-Lagrange writes that the two “great attributes” of
God’s intellect are wisdom and providence.
Interesting.
However, the author notes this: “…free will is an absolute perfection resulting from the intellect. The
act of the divine will is love, and its two great virtues are justice and
mercy.”
Love is in the will. Those of us who have been married, or
who are married, know this truth. Love is not in the emotions, but in the
intellect, in the act of the will. One loves whether one feels like it or not.
This is the wisdom of love.
But, the wisdom of God must be understood, not we see the
wisdom of the world, but as something else.
An entire paragraph is worth repeating: “That wisdom is a comprehensive view embracing all things, everyone is
agreed. But after that, what divergences there are! We may view things from
above, believing that they all proceed from a holy love, or at least are
permitted by it, and that all things converge upon one supreme good. Or we may
view things from below, considering them the result of a material, blind
fatality without any ultimate purpose. Another divergence is that there is a
wisdom characterized by a false optimism, shutting its eyes to the existence of
evil, and there is a pessimistic, depressing wisdom that see no good in
anything.”
In my immediate circle of persons at this time, I meet all
these types of wisdom. The first is the wisdom of the saint. The second is the
wisdom of the atheist, and the third is the wisdom of the consumerist. The
fourth is the wisdom of the cynic, whether young or old.
Those who see things in only materialistic terms, not
considering the soul, fall into the second category, whether avowed atheists or
practical atheists. Many psychologists and psychiatrists fall into this
category, trying to heal a human without considering the soul.
As Garrigou-Lagrange notes, “To adopt this attitude in our estimation of things, is to make of self
the center of all things, unwittingly to adore self. Practically it amounts to
a denial of God and a looking upon others as, so to speak, non-existent.”
Many people I know well, at this time, fall into this
category, as do so many Americans. I pray daily for their conversion.
Garrigou-Lagrange sadly writes that this way is the way of mediocrity and that
those of us who aspire to Christian perfection are seen involved, “as much an excess in one direction as
downright wickedness is in the other.”
If you are not understood by those around you, it is because
they are stuck in the wisdom of the world. This following selection from
Garrigou-Lagrange – describes my life. ”We
must avoid extremes in everything, we
are told. And so the mediocre comes to be called good, whereas it is
nothing but an unstable, confused state lying between the good and the
bad…Instead of rising higher, a man will remain permanently halfway. Hence the
word charity is sometimes applied to a reprehensible moderation, this ‘wisdom
of the flesh’ is equally indulgent to vice and indifferent to virtue.”
To choose to live the Gospel and live in the love of God
causes division. Many cannot understand.
Scary that so many of us are separated from loved ones
because they simply cannot understand our decision to follow Christ fully.
Such wisdom of God, we are reminded in the text, when the
author quotes St. Paul
Many Catholics live in mediocrity and criticize those of us
who choose not to do so as “fools” or even irresponsible. Why?
Because our lives are simply not understood by those who
live in the wisdom of the world, we are called fools.
Sadly, the modern Church has not spoken out against
mediocrity enough. Even at the TLMs, too many sermons are on subjects which no
longer challenge those of us in the pews.
God’s wisdom is a “luminous knowledge” of Himself and all
things. This light can be shared with us to some extent.
I shall return to this topic …to be continued…
More Weather Forecasted
We are entering into more storms....I hope to blog today more, but cannot say for sure.
From SPUC
Join the Rally for Life, Belfast, Sat 5 July
Liam Gibson of SPUC Northern Ireland writes:
Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
"In a little under a week people from all over Ireland will converge on Belfast for the 8th annual Rally for Life. The rally will set-off from Custom House Square at 2pm, 5th July. As always it promises to be an enjoyable event for all the family.Here are videos of the 2012 and 2013 rallies:
Last July the rally brought the centre of Dublin to a standstill as an estimated 60,000 people turned out to protest against the Irish governments plans to legalise abortion. Despite this unprecedented level of public opposition the Irish abortion law, the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act (sic), came into effect on 1st January this year. Experience shows that when abortion is legalised it quickly becomes acceptable to the general public. But there is never an acceptable level of abortion, either it is stopped or the killing spreads. Already there is mounting pressure on both sides of the Border to permit the abortion of children with disabilities.
The victory of the abortion lobby in Ireland was a defeat for the pro-life movement globally. The politicians and abortion advocates are now watching how we react. They're looking for signs that we will simply give-up and go away so they can get on with legalising abortion on demand. If the people who came on to the streets last year don't want to see a further expansion of abortion in Ireland they cannot afford to stay at home Saturday 5th July."
Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Wednesday, 2 July 2014
British Homeschoolers.
Please write to me on comments to let me know privately where there are good, strong Catholic home schooling groups.
Thanks, is important!
Thanks, is important!
From Kathy Sinnott
 |
| Archbishop after horrid attack |
In a solemn ceremony yesterday evening, Archbishop Andre Joseph Leonard, Primate of Belgium, consecrated the Belgian Provinces to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, celebrated Mass in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Brussels after which he led a holy hour of Eucharistic Adoration during which confession was available.
Unfortunately I could not understand his homily but I understand that
Archbp Leonard has a great devotion to the Mass and has especially promoted prayers and sacrifice to heal the hearts of men and woman through the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
He has been a courageous real leader in the areas of life, marriage and family and has attracted many to the priesthood and religious life by his witness to the priestly vocation.
The Archbishop has been viciously attacked in the media but also in person, food thrown at him, doused with water, etc. He just prays for his attackers.
I spoke to people at the consecration and they were all telling me of their love for this humble prelate and that he has been a great gift to the Church in Belgium
Pray for him.
God bless
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