Has Drudge Ever Been So Depressing?

My ancestors came to this fair country for freedom...where do we go?

Limbaugh: 'We are in the midst of a coup'... 
NSA, FBI secretly mining data from Internet firms...
'THEY QUITE LITERALLY CAN WATCH YOUR IDEAS AS YOU TYPE'...
MICROSOFTYAHOOGOOGLEYOUTUBEFACEBOOKSKYPEAPPLE...
Top-secret PRISM program... 
Vast Data Trove...
Billions of Phone Calls...
PAPER: Obama agenda lost in firestorm...
Justice Dept Fights Release of Secret Court Opinion Finding Unconstitutional Surveillance...
USA spends $80 billion year on secret information gathering...
Postal service photographs front/back of every piece of mail it processes...

EXPOSED: 'Massive apparatus in US Gov't building enormous structure with only one goal'...

...'to destroy privacy and anonymity, not just in the US, but around the world'...


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/7/china-encircles-us-arming-western-hemisphere-state/

I hope you read the last two perfection posts earlier today

and do not forget to ask questions, as tomorrow is answer questions day about the series before I close the book cover on this one....

Some things are just too hard for me to write about--

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/06/houston-we-have-protestant.html

and today is the Feast of the Sacred Heart! This happened a few days ago, but I can't get over it.

A repeat of a book review-Ralph Martin on Hell and Other Things

http://blog.adw.org/2012/09/will-many-be-saved-a-look-at-an-important-new-book-by-ralph-martin/

Recommended Blog of the Week

I decided to share weekly one or two blogs I really like. Here is the first one.


http://derkatholikunddiewelt.blogspot.de/

WOW Rant from Palin and some very strange ideas from Sunstein..

Thursday, June 6, 2013 02:53 PM
Newsmax
Sarah Palin: 'America ... So Screwed' with Rice,
Power Picks
By: Bill Hoffmann
Sarah Palin on Thursday issued a blistering attack on President Barack
Obama's appointments of Susan Rice and Samantha Power as top nationalsecurity and foreign-policy advisers, lamenting, "America, we are so
screwed."
"We're in for a helluva ride, America. Obama just named Susan Rice as his
National Security Adviser and nominated Samantha Power to replace Rice
as our U.N. ambassador," the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican
vice presidential nominee said in jaw-dropping Facebook post.
Latest: Is Susan Rice to Blame for Benghazi Cover Up? Was She
Complicit? Vote Here.
"Samantha Power is married to Cass Sunstein, the very, very strange
Obama pick for an early 'czar' position who wowed us with his numerous
bizarre claims including the wacko belief that animals should have the right
to sue in court, that hunting should be banned as genocide, and that pet
ownership is akin to 'slavery.'"
Sunstein, administrator of the White House Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs, is an outspoken advocate of animal rights and once said
that granting animals legal rights could decrease animal cruelty."
......
Palin then cited a report in The Daily Caller claiming that in 2002 Power
proposed forcing a peace deal on the Israelis and Palestinians, "even if it
alienated wealthy, pro-Israel American Jews."

more at Newsmax

On Spiritual Pride--Second Question and Answer

I am answering another question on perfection from C.A. She wants to know about people going around healing other people and claiming charismatic gifts, but not being orthodox with regard to Catholic teaching.

Good Question!

God gives us all gifts in the Sacrament of Baptism and these are completed, as well as increased,  in Confirmation.  Here is the CCC on this point.

III. THE EFFECTS OF CONFIRMATION
1302 It is evident from its celebration that the effect of the sacrament of Confirmation is the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost.
1303 From this fact, Confirmation brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace:
- it roots us more deeply in the divine filiation which makes us cry, "Abba! Father!";¹¹⁷
- it unites us more firmly to Christ;
- it increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us; 
- it renders our bond with the Church more perfect;¹¹⁸
- it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross:¹¹⁹

Recall then that you have received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence, the spirit of holy fear in God's presence. Guard what you have received. God the Father has marked you with his sign; Christ the Lord has confirmed you and has placed his pledge, the Spirit, in your hearts.¹²⁰

One of these gifts is knowledge. This gift pertains to knowledge of ourselves and the Scriptures, which God desires us to have in order to become perfect. At the higher states of holiness, knowledge may be infused. One can look at the great saints such as Padre Pio and Catherine of Siena to see such gift. As to discernment, this gift is one developed as taught by St. Ignatius of Loyola. One must be under orthodox spiritual directors to discern good and bad spirits, but there is more to it than that, as I wrote here. 

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/on-misunderstanding-of-term-discernment.html

Discernment is connected with prudence and purity of heart. Without orthodoxy, such gifts should  be suspect.

Again, I quote the Catholic Encyclopedia:


An excellent lesson is that given by St. Ignatius Loyola in his "Spiritual Exercises". Here we find rules for the discernment of spirits and, being clearly and briefly formulated, these rules indicate a secure course, containing in embryo all that is included in the more extensive treatises of later date. For a complete explanation of them the best commentaries on the "Exercises" of St. Ignatius may be consulted. Of the rules transmitted to us by a saint inspired by Divine light and a learned psychologist taught by personal experience, it will suffice to recall the principal ones. Ignatius gives two kinds and we must call attention to the fact that in the second category, according to some opinions, he sometimes considers a more delicate discernment of spirits adapted to the extraordinary course of mysticism. Be that as it may, he begins by enunciating this clear principle, that both the good and the evil spirit act upon a soul according to the attitude it assumes toward them. If it pose as their friend, they flatter it; if to resist them, they torment it. But the evil spirit speaks only to the imagination and the senses, whereas the good spirit acts upon reason and conscience. The evil labours to excite concupiscence, the good to intensify love for God. Of course it may happen that a perfectly well-disposed soul suffers from the attacks of the devil deprived of the sustaining consolations of the good angel; but this is only a temporary trial the passing of which must be awaited in patience and humility. St. Ignatius also teaches us to distinguish the spirits by their mode of action and by the end they seek. Without any preceding cause, that is to say, suddenly, without previous knowledge or sentiment, God alone, by virtue of His sovereign dominion, can flood the soul with light and joy. But if there has been a preceding cause, either the good or the bad angel may be the author of the consolation; this remains to be judged from the consequences. As the good angel's object is the welfare of the soul and the bad angel's its defects or unhappiness, if, in the progress of our thoughts all is well and tends to good there is no occasion for uneasiness; on the contrary, if we perceive any deviation whatsoever towards evil or even a slight unpleasant agitation, there is reason to fear. Such, then, is the substance of these brief rules which are nevertheless so greatly admired by the masters of the spiritual life. Although requiring an authorized explanation, when well understood, they act as a preservative against many illusions.

In the Catholic Church, God works through the hierarchy, the Teaching Magisterium, the intercession of the saints, and the sacraments. Are there people with extraordinary gifts? Yes, but rare, as they would be saints as well.

People who are not obedient in some area of Church teaching cannot be trusted in so-called ministries.

Recently, for example, a friend of mine found a suspect alternative so-called medical treatment, not approved by any medical association being taught at a retreat house here in England.

People claiming gifts but involved in New Age and fake alternative methods of healing cannot be trusted. People claiming healing gifts who say they are Catholic but do not follow the teachings of the Church in any area must be suspect and, frankly, avoided.

Some people in the Illuminative State may be experiencing such gifts, but many times, spiritual pride gets in the way. Beware.

One more interesting article

http://faculty.washington.edu/eloftus/Articles/sciam.htm

RMT Debate and Scary Catholics

Here are a few what I consider balanced articles on RMT. These are written by professionals. People who are not professionals, who claim to be faith healers, and who claim special powers from God are dangerous and misleading some of the public, especially Catholics.

In the Midwest, I witnessed a priest and an ecumenical charismatic group claiming such healings and came to the conclusion that such claims were based on emotional instability and manipulation. Sadly, as I was a young person when introduced by this priest to so-called healing of memories and at first, took this in, hook, line and sinker. Thankfully, I became more aware of the pitfalls and deceits involved.  Indeed, now in England,  some charismatic groups are picking up this decades old ideal of healing of memories which is completely out of their competence, and not connected with any Catholic teaching. Catholics see that healing occurs in the sacraments and through medically/psychologically trained counselors. 

THE SACRAMENTS OF HEALING
1420 Through the sacraments of Christian initiation, man receives the new life of Christ. Now we carry this life "in earthen vessels," and it remains "hidden with Christ in God."¹ We are still in our "earthly tent," subject to suffering, illness, and death.² This new life as a child of God can be weakened and even lost by sin.

1421 The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health,³ has willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation, even among her own members. This is the purpose of the two sacraments of healing: the sacrament of Penance and the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.

---

1 2 Cor 4:7; Col 3:3.


http://www.susanrobbins.com/cv/recovmem.html

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/dissociative-identity-disorder/dispatch-repressed-memory-legal-front

http://sw.oxfordjournals.org/content/43/5/423.full.pdf

http://www.stopbadtherapy.com/resource/article/vsun1.shtml

http://cgu.edu/PDFFiles/sbos/deprince%202012%20motivated%20forgetting.pdf

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/articles/ground-lost-false-memoryrecovered-memory-therapy-debate

a snippet from the first article in the glossary...

False memory syndrome: A lay term used to describe memories of events that did not happen. Such memories are confabulated or fabricated, usually, but not exclusively, in the course of therapy aimed at retrieving early childhood memories of abuse.

Recovered memory: A memory of a past traumatic event, believed to have been concealed from consciousness by repression or dissociation, but retrieved or recovered intact at a later point in time. See also recovered memory therapy and false memory syndrome.

Recovered memory therapy: A controversial form of psychotherapy aimed at retrieving traumatic memories that are believed to be repressed or dissociated. Although there is no one method for this, the techniques used most typically include hypnosis, truth serum, guided imagery, dream interpretation, age regression, free association, journaling, psychodrama, primal scream therapy, reflexology, massage and other forms of “body work” to recover “body memories.”

I am disgusted that so-called Catholic group are involved in this stuff. It is dangerous and deceitful. Non-professionals are offering so-called courses on this outside the medical and psychiatric communities. 

Here is a new book on the fraud. If anyone has read this, let me know a.s.a.p. It is an e-book. I need more information on this pernicious therapy.

Beginning of Q and A on the Perfection Series

For the next few days, I shall try and answer questions as to the applications or understanding of the perfection series.  So far, I only have one question, which I can answer from experience.

KL asked how a mother with children at home can pursue the interior life without a community for help and support.

One may look at this situation from three points of view, all of which I tried when I was a stay-at-home mum with a young child.

First, create a community for yourself. I did this. Invite like-minded or potentially like-minded women in for coffee mornings.

Home school and get involved in home schooling communities or create one yourself. These groups usually include good conservative Evangelicals and Catholic mums.

2) Find the closest TLM and go to it. Most TLMs have community of some sort.

3) If one cannot create or find a community, pray to God for a good way in which to follow your time of meditation and contemplation at home. Ask your husband for an hour by yourself daily for this.

God always blesses effort and desire.

Are you ready to move?

In the future, people, like you and me, may have to move to get to Mass on Sunday, or even to get the sacraments in a somewhat regular fashion. As in England, during the Reformation, families will have to decide  whether to stay in their homes or move to have a priest minister to them. Families may break up because of this, just as the Mores had to break up, some going France and some staying in England. The same was true of the Howard family; some had to stay in England, such as Philip Howard, who was in prison, and some went to France. England under Elizabeth I passed a law that it was illegal to send one's Catholic children to the continent. Some families were stopped at the ports and turned back, not being allowed to leave the country with children.

Things will get bad really quickly, as we have seen this week with so many odd laws undermining the authority of the parents either being passed or being discussed. What Stalin and Mao did to make the state the carer and therefore, brianwashers of children, will happen in so-called democratic countries. Look at my link a few days ago on the ruling in Scotland that every child will now have a state minder, whose authority will be greater than that of the parents.

If anyone thinks that things will get better for families or the Church, look and read.

I cannot tell you which places in the world would be safe from such tyranny. There may be none. My ancestors went to America for religious and financial freedom.

There may be no more promised lands except the Kingdom of God under persecution.

Thanks to a reader and a good bishop, I feel justified

http://adriansharp.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/abp-coleridge-ordinariate-and-maria-divine-mercy.pdf

The Last Perfection Post

I want to summarize a few points here on the way to perfection. As readers have followed this series, I hope these points resonate.

1) All Catholics are called to the way of perfection;

2) the call to perfection is a call to all those Catholics who are baptized, no matter what the age;

3) the call to perfection has stages which cannot be skipped, as these reflect the spiritual, psychological, and physical growth of the person;

4) one must start with being orthodox, that is, an obedient son or daughter of the Church;

5) the sacraments are key to the reception of sanctifying grace, necessary for the road through purification, to illumination, to perfection;

6) the road to perfection is the natural way for the each Catholic; purgatory is not the goal, heaven is the goal;

7) God offers all of us these graces and those who are generous respond to this call of Love;

8) all of the saints and all the Doctors of the Church knew and experienced these three stages; they also, as seen in my series on the Doctors of the Church, wrote about these, as did, of course, Garrigou-Lagrange;

9) Christ the Bridegroom calls us to the stages of understanding that each one of us must experience, as explained, for example, by Bernard of Clairvaux; these stages are knowing one is a child of a loving Father; that one is the student of the Master, Christ; and finally, one is the beloved of the Bridegroom;

10) the virtues and gifts given in the sacraments are freed up though purification and brought to fruition;

11) only when one pursues perfection and allows God to purify one does that person finally do work of God, and not the work of one's self-will;

12) the way of perfection is suffering, period;

13) prayer is a necessity, starting with meditation and moving to contemplation;

14) patience and humility must counteract anger, complaining, and spiritual pride.

 I hope you ask questions in the comment box set up yesterday for Q and A.

Not for the few, but for all...perfection

The penultimate post on perfection; again, from Garrigou-Lagrange:

THE NORMAL AND IMMEDIATE PRELUDE OF THE BEATIFIC VISION

If sanctifying grace is the seed of eternal life in us, what follows as a result? First of all, that sanctifying grace, called "the grace of the virtues and the gifts," is "much more excellent," as St. Thomas says,(13) than the graces gratis datae, like the gift of miracles, that of tongues, or prophecy which announces a contingent event. These graces are, so to speak, exterior; they give us signs of the divine life, but they are not themselves the divine life shared in us.

What the charismatics do not get--the interior life of grace is much more important than the exterior. The exterior follows the interior.

Now, it is from the grace of the virtues and the gifts received by all at baptism, and not from graces gratis datae and extraordinary graces that, as we have seen, the infused contemplation of the mysteries of faith proceeds. This contemplation is an act of living faith, illumined by the gifts of understanding and wisdom. It is not, therefore, an essentially extraordinary favor like prophecy or the gift of tongues, but is found in the normal way of sanctity.

This normal way of sanctity through contemplation is NOT a way of spoken or shared prayer, nor a way of merely actions, but a seeking of intense prayer.

The truth of this conclusion becomes even more apparent if we observe that sanctifying grace, being essentially ordained to eternal life, is likewise ordained to the normal and immediate prelude of the beatific vision. Is not this prelude precisely the eminent exercise of infused faith illumined by the gifts of wisdom and understanding, that is, the infused contemplation of the divine goodness and its radiation, together with perfect charity and the ardent desire for the beatific vision? On earth this ardent desire is found in its full perfection only in the transforming union. Therefore this union does not appear to be outside the normal way of sanctity, especially if one considers, not so much a given individual soul, but the human soul and, in it, sanctifying grace considered in itself, as the seed of glory.

The normal way...through sanctifying grace received in the sacraments of the Church. 

The ardent desire for God is only too rare on earth, even in consecrated souls; and yet if there is a good to which the Christian should ardently aspire, evidently it is the eternal possession of God. To attain it, he should desire an ever deeper faith, a firmer confidence, a purer and stronger love of God, virtues which are found precisely in the transforming union. 

Part of the process is the desire for the process.  Value and intensity...our idols lie in our energies and focus. Each one of us needs to be humble and realize the obstacles to union with God, and say with St. Teresa that one wants more, the more which is God.

Thus this union appears, in profoundly humble and fully purified souls, as the immediate prelude of the beatific vision. There must, in fact, be some proportion between the intensity of the desire and the value of the good desired; in this case the value of the good being infinite, it could not be too greatly desired. Consequently it is not fitting that this infinite good should be granted to a soul that does not yet desire it ardently. The more purified the soul is, the more it aspires to the possession of God, and if at death the soul's desire is not as ardent as it should be, this is a sign that it needs additional purification, that of purgatory.

The need for purgatory is real and a gift, but it is not the ideal, and we cannot aim for that, but aim for heaven.

The dogma of purgatory, then, throws a new light on the present question. Purgatory is a punishment which supposes a sin that could have been avoided and an insufficient satisfaction that could have been complete if we had better accepted the trials of the present life. 

Do this..accept the trials of this life, please. These are the way to perfection. Today, for example, my glasses came in and the prescription is wrong. They have to be redone. I got bumped off the Internet regularly each day since Monday. And, a few days ago, some customer service people gave me the wrong information about my phone which ended up in me purchasing one which I cannot use as a dongle, when I was told it would. The company will not let me return it. Sufferings in addition to back pain and another illness have slowed me down to a snail's pace. God is purifying me big time and I say yes to all of this trivial and not so trivial suffering. If I complain, I step back into the wasteland of sin and discontent. No way!

It is certain that no one will be detained in purgatory except for sins he could have avoided or for negligence in making reparation for them. 

Train your children to be holy....do not wait. Children can be saints. We can be saints.

Therefore normally we should, like the saints, undergo our purgatory in this life while meriting, while growing in love, instead of after death without meriting.

There is no merit in purgatory.

Therefore sanctifying grace, which is of itself ordained to eternal life, is also ordained to such perfection that the soul may receive the light of glory immediately after death without passing through purgatory. This disposition to enter heaven immediately after death supposes a complete purification, analogous at least to that of souls that are about to leave purgatory and have a very ardent desire for God. According to St. John of the Cross, this complete purification is normally found on earth only in those who have courageously endured the passive purifications of the senses and the spirit, which prepare the soul for intimate union with God.(14) 

Suffering is a good, a grace given to us. Do not waste suffering. Count it all joy.

This reason confirms all that we have said and shows that the passive purifications are indeed in the normal way of sanctity, like the close union with God for which they prepare. Evident also is the degree of sanctity in question in the expression "the normal way of sanctity"; that sanctity is meant which permits the soul to enter heaven immediately after death.

Why should we aim so low; aim high, be in love with God. God can do in the lay life, what is done in Tyburn. 

Such is, we believe, the teaching of St. John of the Cross, which admirably preserves and explains the traditional doctrine on this point, in particular that of the great spiritual writers who preceded him. To grasp the meaning and import of this teaching, souls must doubtless be considered not only as they are, but as they should be. Now, it is the work proper to spirituality to remind souls incessantly of what they should be that they may go beyond what they are.

Clergy, please teach this...please.

This lofty doctrine also conforms perfectly to what St. Thomas tells us not only about the nature of grace, the seed of glory, but also about the beatitudes and the imitation of Jesus Christ,(15) the virtues of the purified soul,(16) the higher degree of humility,(17) patience,(18) the spirit of faith,(19) confidence in God, and charity.(20)

When the seminaries stopped teaching Thomas Aquinas, the rot set in.

St. Thomas, St. Albert the Great, St. Bonaventure, and after them St. John of the Cross and St. Francis de Sales (21) found this teaching in the fathers who spoke of the relations of contemplation and perfect love, in St. Paul himself, and in the Gospel. St. Paul delights in saying: "That which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation [if it is well borne], worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory." (22) He gives us the ardent desire for it by reminding us that we have received the "pledge of the Spirit," (23) or the pledge and foretaste of eternal life. And our Lord Himself says to us: "If any man thirst, let him come to Me, and drink. . . . Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." (24) "He that hath My commandments and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me. And he that loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father; and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him." (25) 

Purity of heart is real, not poetry. 

This secret manifestation of Christ to the faithful soul is truly the prelude of eternal life; it is found especially in the highest of the eight beatitudes: "Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers. . . . Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake." (26) These beatitudes are, says St. Thomas, the highest acts of the virtues and the gifts; there is in them "a kind of imperfect inchoation of future happiness." (27) Even here on earth, the fruits of these merits begin to appear, and they contain a savor of eternal life, or a foretaste of the joy of the elect.

To be clean of heart means that one has allowed God to purify one and one has a generous heart. 

Be generous. 

To be continued...

A Good Idea from A Faithful Reader

Psalm 141:5 Let a righteous man strike me--that is a kindness; let him rebuke me--that is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it, for my prayer will still be against the deeds of evildoers.

---

Matthew 18:15 "If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.

Sal in the comment box pointed out an excellent nuance on complaining vs. addressing errors.

Here are some hints. And, be prepared for negative responses. Thankfully, I have moved quite a bit and am an old person, that these situations cannot be pinpointed.

1) If I have a problem with a priest, where I attend Mass regularly, and not just now and then--in other words, if the priest knows me, and if he is, for example, not saying the NO correctly (such are using the older form, which is now illegal), I would go to that priest directly and not talk about this in the community; or, if a priest is allowing a person in an irregular marriage to come to be a lector, or EMHC, or receive Communion, as one has to be a Catholic in good standing for that, I would talk to the person first, and then, the priest. These situations cause scandal in the community, but, believe it or not, some priests do not know what the laity may know about someone. A priest was grateful to know of a situation like this years ago, and asked the person to step down from ministry and apply for an annulment.  It was a huge parish, and the priest knew less about people's lives than we all did. But, always talk to the person, and the priest first. Sadly, one priest had told me this type of thing does not matter, even though the parish was being scandalized, concerning false teaching in the marriage course concerning contraception and re-marriage. I moved out of that parish, as did one other couple who were involved, as I was, in RCIA and marriage prep. The priest was so disobedient to Church teaching and allowing disobedient Catholics to teach, I could no longer work with him.

A few more hints....

2) If a problem of liturgical abuse persists with a priest, I would talk with the priest first, then, if the abuse continues, write to the bishop, and tell the priest that I am writing to the bishop. If this is a one-off problem, I let it drop.

Galatians 6:1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.

3) If a sister or brother in the Lord whom I know well is sinning seriously, I tell that person directly. For example, last summer, I told someone in Walsingham about the dangers of The Warning site and how she  should not be passing out print outs in the National Shrine. She contradicted me, and ignored me. But, I did my duty. I am going to have to talk to some one soon about another false ministry, which is not Catholic, heretical, dangerous,  and which she is about to enter. I pray and fast even before doing so if the situation is serious.

4) If a person is in a Catholic marriage, but divorced, and I know them very well, such as a brother or sister in the Lord dating without an annulment and going to Mass and Communion, I speak to him or her directly. Same is true if someone is contracepting, or using IVF. But, I would only speak to those I knew very well. I had to do this recently, again. Sadly, the person is ignoring me about this situation, but she knows I care about her, but she wants to date without an annulment.

2 Thessalonians 3:15 Yet do not regard them as an enemy, but warn them as you would a fellow believer.

5) In all these things, I would never talk about these situations with other people except those involved. That is gossip.

Complaining is talking about one's suffering instead of bearing it for one's sins or for purification. Complaining is dissing other people behind their back and this is also calumny. Complaining about one's pastor, without speaking to him if there are problems, is a sin. But, be prepared for negative responses, as I got when talking to a priest I know very well about the lack of following the rules for baptismal prep. He basically told me to shut-up, and that he did not care about the guidelines. Another priest was passing out Communion to non-Catholics, and I addressed this. Again, this priest told me he did not consider this a problem. I wrote to the bishop, and the bishop intervened, and wrote letters to every priest in the diocese that there was absolutely no inter-communion with non-Catholics. But, I lost my job....be prepared.

In all these things, souls are in danger of being lost. If I fail speaking out of love, I give the situation and person to God and FORGET ABOUT IT.

Remember, this week, I published the spiritual works of mercy: one is to admonish sinners and another is to instruct the ignorant.

I do these things only if necessary, but years ago, when I was far away from the Church, a good nun told me the truth about my life, and I repented. This is our job as baptized Catholics, to really love one another, and not be sentimental.

Always pray, and love all involved.

The False Road of Complaining vs. Perfection

"A person who rails at God in adversity, suffers without merit; moreover by his lack of resignation he adds to his punishment in the next life and experiences greater disquietude of mind in this life." 
St Alphonsus de Liguori via Garrigou-Lagrange.

In my life, one fifth which has been lived in England, I have noticed that the English and Irish complain much more than Americans about everything. This negativity seems to be a cultural phenomenon and indicates a lack of faith, hope and charity. Complaining is a truly evil sin. It is called "murmuring" in the monastery and destroys communities. It is a habit which must be broken if one wants to enter the road to perfection.

I do not want to be around "whiners" or "wingers". I want to be with joyful, faith-filled and growing Catholics. Women seem to be the worst for this, and when I gently try to steer a conversation away from complaining, I seem to fail in the attempt. Now, I am to the point where I must just remove myself from the company of complainers. I may even have to drop old friends who have persisted in this for years. The atmosphere created by complainers is poisonous to the soul. If one has a habit of complaining, one will not enter heaven on death. Here is a good sermon on it from years ago. St. Benedict saw that it destroyed love and obedience, which are the two virtues which grow in the pursuit of perfection.

Complaining stops grace, unless one repents and begs God to change one. Complaining kills holiness.

Moses had to correct the murmurers, and some died. Here is St. Paul on the point and how he lists murmuring with other great sins.

1 Corinthians 10

Douay-Rheims 

10 For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea.

2 And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea:

3 And did all eat the same spiritual food,

4 And all drank the same spiritual drink; (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.)

5 But with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the desert.

6 Now these things were done in a figure of us, that we should not covet evil things as they also coveted.

7 Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

9 Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents.

God sent poisonous snakes to kill the complainers.

10 Neither do you murmur: as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

11 Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

12 Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall.

13 Let no temptation take hold on you, but such as is human. And God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it.

14 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, fly from the service of idols.

15 I speak as to wise men: judge ye yourselves what I say.

16 The chalice of benediction, which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? And the bread, which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord ?

17 For we, being many, are one bread, one body, all that partake of one bread.

18 Behold Israel according to the flesh: are not they, that eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar ?

19 What then ? Do I say, that what is offered in sacrifice to idols, is any thing ? Or, that the idol is any thing ?

20 But the things which the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God. And I would not that you should be made partakers with devils.

21 You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord, and the chalice of devils: you cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of devils.

22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy ? Are we stronger than he? All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.

23 All things are lawful for me, but all things do not edify.

24 Let no man seek his own, but that which is another's.

25 Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, eat; asking no question for conscience' sake.

26 The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.

27 If any of them that believe not, invite you, and you will be willing to go; eat of any thing that is set before you, asking no question for conscience' sake.

28 But if any man say: This has been sacrificed to idols, do not eat of it for his sake that told it, and for conscience' sake.

29 Conscience, I say, not thy own, but the other's. For why is my liberty judged by another man's conscience ?

30 If I partake with thanksgiving, why am I evil spoken of, for that for which I give thanks ?

31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.

32 Be without offence to the Jews, and to the Gentiles, and to the church of God:

33 As I also in all things please all men, not seeking that which is profitable to myself, but to many, that may be saved.

Complaining was the great sin of the Israelites when they left Egypt, experienced the great miracle of deliverance from slavery and the parting of the Red Sea. These people lacked gratitude.

Gratitude is being thankful for all things and all situations, seeing the Hand of God in all and seeing the plan or destiny which marks our lives. 

The Israelites blew it. The trip would have taken from two weeks to a month, even with goats and children, but it took forty years. Here are some possible routes. Catholic scholars have other routes, marking the sea crossing on the bit higher up. But, the point here is that it does not take forty years to get across Sinai. 

Complaining indicates a lack of trust in Providence. We all talk too much, as I noted in post earlier this week. Silence stops sinning with the tongue. 

Numbers 11

ERV

1And the people were as murmurers, speaking evil in the ears of the LORD: and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and devoured in the uttermost part of the camp. 2And the people cried unto Moses; and Moses prayed unto the LORD, and the fire abated. 3And the name of that place was called Taberah: because the fire of the LORD burnt among them.

4And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? 5We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt for nought; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: 6but now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all: we have nought save this manna to look to.

7And the manna was like coriander seed, and the appearance thereof as the appearance of bdellium. 8The people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and seethed it in pots, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. 9And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.

10And Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent: and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly; and Moses was displeased. 11And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore hast thou evil entreated thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? 12Have I conceived all this people? have I brought them forth, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing-father carrieth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers? 13Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. 14I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. 15And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness. 

To be continued...

Q and A Time on Perfection Series

Tomorrow, I am wrapping up the perfection series with at least two more posts. However, some of you may have questions about the series, which includes 400 or more postings over the past 18 months.

Please ask questions and I shall answer them over the weekend for sure. For those who follow me, you know that I do not have regular access to the Internet; and my company on my phone has been down plus off and on all week. Sigh...

Ask away in this comment box, if you want to do so. Will not be as fun as Boris' Q and A, but more polite! Also, I shall have my new glasses then and will be able to SEE properly.

For those who love charts...on the way to perfection, start bottom up

SYNTHESIS OF THE TREATISE ON THE THREE AGES OF THE INTERIOR LIFE BY GARRIGOU-LAGRANGE
(To be read from the bottom up)

Unitive life of the perfect ◊ full ◊ extraordinary, e.g., with the vision of the Blessed Trinity ◊ weak ◊  ordinary • eminent contemplative form • apostolic form ◊ initial ◊ not very continual union, often interrupted

Illuminative life of proficients ◊ full infused contemplation ◊ extraordinary or accompanied by visions, revelations ◊ ordinary •clearly contemplative form • active form, or form ordained to action, e.g., gift of wisdom under practical form ◊ weak ◊ transitory acts of infused contemplation (d. The Dark Night, Bk. I, chap. 9) ◊ initial ◊ passive purification of the senses more or less well borne (initial infused contemplation)

Purgative life of beginners ◊ full or generous ◊ fervent souls pious and devout souls ◊ weak ◊ tepid or retarded souls, not without relapses ◊ initial ◊ first conversion or justification

The Double Life vs. The Narrow Way

Mother Adele Garnier, whose life I am beginning to put into a play, entered the Unitive State after many years.  She wrote that the following of the Rule of St. Benedict was a sure way of reaching this state. This phrase is on the wall of the common room in the enclosure to remind all the nuns of the goal of their suffering in and through the Rule-the glory of God through their very beings. How wonderful to be surrounded by women who desire the same thing. Sigh, I wish I could have stayed.

However, on the outside, one sees many nuns, sisters and the clergy leading double lives. The great lie of supposed dialogue with the world, a false statement said over and over for the past fifty years, means that one seemingly does not have to give up the cushy, even middle-class life in order to be holy.

We laity have been deceived on the point, folks. The double life creates a split personality, a split soul.

Either one desires God with all one's soul, mind, heart, or one falls into the cheap lies of the world.

Of course, home, food, family are all goods, gifts from God. But, these can become idols.

The narrow way was spoken of by Christ follows. Pray to Him for His Love.

Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. [14] How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it! [15] Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Matthew 7:14-15 DR

To be continued...

On the Beatific Vision and the Unitive State A Bit

Last year, a friend of mine had a remarkable experience of his particular judgement. The man, who is young middle age, told me he cried for days and days over his sins. Being that he spent his life as a good Catholic, was in the seminary for awhile, and was celibate by choice as a single person, the fact that he was faced with sin, even his smallest venial sins were seen as these really were in the presence of Truth, Beauty, Love and all the Attributes which we know are of God struck me as significant. Most of us do not see the horror of even one sin before He Who Is-the I Am Who Am.

In England and in America, there are too many priests who still preach and teach that everyone goes to heaven when they die. These priests forget about two things: punishment due to sin and the need for purification. Almost weekly, I hear Catholics state that their recently deceased relatives are in heaven and these same Catholics do not have Masses said for their dead family members.

The Church Suffering remains a teaching of the Catholic Church. And, only the perfect are with God. We shall be judged by real love, not sloppy, sentimental love, but tough love, sacrificial love.

Here is Garrigou-Lagrange:

We shall sum up here what St. Thomas teaches on this point in the Summa. (2)

If God had created us in a purely natural state with a mortal body and an immortal soul, but without the supernatural life of grace, even then our last end, our beatitude, would have consisted in knowing God and loving Him above all else, for our intellect is made to know the truth, and especially the supreme Truth, and our will is made to love and will good, and especially the sovereign Good.

If we had been created without the supernatural life of grace, the final reward of the just would have been to know God and to love Him, but they would have known Him only from without, so to speak, by the reflection of His perfections in creatures, as the greatest philosophers of antiquity knew Him. 

With reason, we can know God. But reason is inspired by grace and knowledge through the sacraments.

Without a doubt, we would have known Him in a more certain manner without admixture of errors, but by abstract knowledge, through the intermediary of things and of limited concepts in the mirror of creatures. We would have known God as the first cause of spirits and bodies, and we would have enumerated His infinite perfections known analogically by their reflection in the created order. Our ideas of the divine attributes would have remained, we have said, like squares of mosaic incapable of reproducing perfectly the spiritual physiognomy of God without hardening it. This abstract and mediate knowledge would have let many obscurities subsist, in particular in regard to the intimate harmonizing of the divine perfections. We would always have asked ourselves how infinite goodness and the divine permission of evil are able to harmonize, how infinite justice and infinite mercy can accord intimately. The human intellect would not have been able to forbear saying: If I could only see this God, who is the source of all truth and goodness, of the life of creatures, and of intellects and wills! This desire would have remained conditional and inefficacious if we had been created in a purely natural state.

Just as we love someone and want to know all about them, and if in marriage, desire union with that person we love, so too, we desire complete union in God.  I am grateful to Father Marcus for this art and poem he translated found here :

The Canticle of Saint Francis

Love put me
in a furnace.
Love put me
in the furnace.
He put me
in the furnace of Love.

I

In a furnace of Love He put me
my new Spouse, my very own
when He slipped the ring onto my finger,
this loving little Lamb.
And then, He cast me into prison
and struck me with a blade,
splitting my heart wide open;
Love put me in a furnace.

II

He split my heart in two,
and my body fell to the ground.
The bolt of Love
ripping from its crossbow,
struck me, as it embraced me.
Out of peace He has made war;
I am dying of the sweetness.
Love put me in a furnace.

III

I am dying of the sweetness,
be not astonished.
Such a blow was dealt me
by love's lance.
Its point of iron is long and wide
as a hundred arms' lengths. Know this:
it went right through me .
Love put me in a furnace.

IV

And then, the arrows rained down tightly
and the crossbows thrust me down.
So, did I take up a shield,
and the blows came fast and heavy,
until nothing more could defend me.
They broke me into pieces,
so strong was the arm delivering them.
Love put me in a furnace.

V

He shot them with such force;
I despaired of fending them off.
And to escape death,
I cried out with all my strength:
"You are breaking the laws of combat."
But then, He raises an instrument of warfare
that overwhelms me with fresh blows.
Love put me in a furnace.

VI

The arrows that He aimed at me
were of stone set in lead;
each of them weighed at least a thousand pounds.
He launched them in a hailstorm so thick
that I could not count them.
Not one of them missed me.
Love put me in a furnace.

VII

He could not have missed me, never,
so perfect was His aim.
I was lying on the earth,
unable to move; my members failed me.
My whole being was utterly smashed.
Like a man already dead
I no longer felt anything.
Love put me in a furnace.

VIII

Dead, not by mortal death,
but by intoxication with the Beloved.
Then, I awoke so strong,
again taking possession of my heart,
and I was able to follow the guides
who led me on
even to the gate of heaven.
Love put me in a furnace.

IX

After I regained consciousness,
I waged war against Christ.
Straightaway, I took up arms,
and rode my steed into His terrain.
And having come face to face with Him,
without delay, I came to blows,
and avenged myself on Him.
Love put me in a furnace.

X

When I had sated my vengeance,
I made my peace with Him;
For, from the very beginning
this Love had been true love.
Now, of Christ, the Lover,
I have become capable.
Ever and always does my heart carry Him.
Love put me in a furnace.

Love put me
in a furnace.
Love put me
in the furnace.
He put me
in the furnace of Love.

But, in reality, the infinite mercy of God has raised us to supernatural life, whose full flowering is called not only the future life, but eternal life, because it is measured by the single instant of immobile eternity. Preaching the beatitudes at the very beginning of His ministry, our Lord tells us: "Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven." (3) To the Samaritan woman He says: "He that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst forever; but the water that I will give him, shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting." (4) In His sacerdotal prayer, Christ says: "Now this is eternal life: that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." (5) St. Paul explains this statement to us by saying: "We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known." (6)And St. John adds: "We shall be like to Him, because we shall see Him as He is." (7)

Have you EVER heard a sermon on this from the pulpit? I never have. Do priests understand themselves the loving union with the Trinity? Do they reveal in their lives that they are seeking perfection? I can count three whom I know personally, and all are under 65 years of age. They are secular priests as well.

The Church has defined that this revealed doctrine means an immediate vision of the divine essence without the intermediary of any creature previously known.(8) In other words, by the gaze of our intellect supernaturally strengthened by the light of glory, we shall see God better than we see with our eyes of flesh the persons with whom we speak, for we shall see Him clearly as an object closer to us than we are to ourselves. Here on earth we know especially what God is not: we know that He is not material, changing, limited; we shall then see Him as He is in His Deity, in His infinite essence, in His intimate life common to the three Persons. Grace is a participation of this essence and life since it will give us to see Him thus immediately as He sees Himself, to love Him as He loves Himself, to live eternally by Him.

I do not understand people wanting to know God through seers and visionaries when we each are capable of finding God in prayer, through the Church and the sacraments. We do not need intermediaries and can be wasting a lot of time running around to this group and that instead of praying. In the end, meeting God is completely personal and not a group experience. 

St. Thomas explains this revealed doctrine by stating (9) that between God and us there will not be even the intermediary of an idea, for no created idea can represent such as it is in itself, the pure, intellectual, eternally subsistent being that is God and His infinite truth, or His limitless love. We shall not be able to express our contemplation by any word, even by any interior word, just as a man is rendered incapable of speech when absorbed by the sight of a sublime and indescribable spectacle.

This immediate vision of the divine essence immensely surpasses all the created concepts of the divine perfections that we can have here on earth. We are called to see all the divine perfections intimately harmonized, identified in the eminence of the Deity, or the inner life of God; to see how the tenderest mercy and the most inflexible justice proceed from one and the same infinitely generous and infinitely holy love, from an eternal love of the supreme Good, which is, to be sure, intimately diffusive of self (the principle of mercy), but which also has a right to be loved above all (the principle of justice). We shall see how mercy and justice are united in all the works of God, how eternal love is identical with the sovereign good always loved, how divine wisdom is identical with the first truth always known, and how all these perfections harmonize and are but one in the very essence of Him who is.

Dear readers, do you desire this union with God above all else? Are you spiritually lazy? Are you distracted? Are you not orthodox?

We shall also see the infinite fecundity of the divine nature in the three divine Persons; the eternal generation of the Word, "splendor of the Father and figure of His substance." We shall gaze upon the ineffable procession of the Holy Ghost, term of the common love of the Father and of the Son, the bond uniting Them eternally in the most absolute diffusion of Themselves. The supreme Being is essentially diffusive of Itself in the intimate life of God, and freely bestows Its riches by means of creation and by our gratuitous elevation to the life of grace. Thus will be verified St. Paul's words: "Whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son; that He might be the first-born amongst many brothers." (10) From all eternity God has an only Son to whom He communicates all His divine nature; He gives Him to be "God of God, light of light." He has willed to have other sons, adopted sons, to whom He communicates a participation in His nature, sanctifying grace in the essence of their souls, and from this grace proceed in their higher faculties the light of glory and in amissible charity. Thus, St. Thomas says, "by the incarnation of the Son we receive adoptive sonship in the likeness of His natural sonship." (11)

This is not poetry, this is reality, our ultimate reality, to be united with God.

We shall also contemplate immediately the intimate and indissoluble union of the person of the Word and of the humanity of the Savior. We shall see thereby all the splendor of the divine maternity of Mary, of her mediation, the price of the salvation of souls, and the unlimited riches of these words so quickly uttered: "The eternal life of the elect."

Very few saints have written about this union, as such a union is beyond words. We can look at those who have given us glimpses of the unitive state, most clearly, St. John of the Cross.

I have met people in the Illuminative State, but not in the Unitive State. 

Personal holiness is hard to find. Concentrate on yourself and God.

No one can tell the joy that will be born in us of this absolutely immediate vision, which will be like a spiritual fusion of our soul, of our intellect, and of the divine essence, an uninterrupted transforming union, an intimate and perfect communion that nothing will ever be able to lessen. The love which will result from this vision will be so pure and strong a love of God that nothing will ever be able to diminish it. 

Again, do you desire this above all else?

This love will be sovereignly spontaneous, but no longer free; it will be superior to liberty, ravished by the sovereign Good. By this love we shall rejoice especially that God is God, infinitely holy, just, and merciful; we shall adore all the decrees of His providence in view of the manifestation of His goodness, and we shall subordinate ourselves completely to Him. We shall enter into His beatitude, according to the words of our Savior in the parable of the talents: "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." (12)

We attain this state, but not without suffering, not without the pain of the self-will being uprooted.

We can form some idea of the activity of the saints in heaven by the radiation of their lives on earth, such as it appears, for example, in our day in the numerous graces obtained through the intercession of Mary in the sanctuary at Lourdes, or through the prayer of a St. Teresa of Lisieux.

To be continued..