Abbey-Roads2

Just some advice - blogger to blogger - oh, and it is just my opinion:

If you use material other than your own, be it from a book, a news source, what have you, remember try and cite or link to your sources.  Especially if your entire post is nothing more than something “lifted” from another source.

If you make certain claims, try to provide your source back-up.  It is like doing a paper for school - cite.  And verify to the best of your ability.  When you are wrong - post a retraction.

If it is your opinion or you are writing from anecdotal experience - great - you are sharing something you learned.  People like that.

A blog can be a reporting tool - especially if you happen to be a news blog, such as Stella Borealis and others. Having said that, many bloggers will usually get the same information from those sources everyone else has access to.  What will make your post interesting is your view of the story you lifted.  It’s like an editorial, a letter to the editor, that makes the post interesting.  (In my case, not always.)

When you get a scoop - by all means, be the first to post it!  Or news no one else has access to - post it. 

When you write about human experience, make it your own when you can - people like that.  The life lessons from our personal experience is often helpful to others.  Just as much as the personal testimony of our faith and spiritual life can be edifying for another.

Try not to make your posts too long, people get bored.  If they happen to be long, divide the paragraphs up with headers that define what follows.  (Don Marco taught me that.)  Use pictures if you want.

Link to other sites/blogs, both on your blogroll and in the body of your post - it’s a network thing, and it also substantiates what you are writing about - especially if you got the idea from that particular site.

Not always, but occasionally acknowledge your commentators - respond to comments, blogs are not forums, but people love to be acknowledged.  It isn’t that hard to do.  (If you ignore them, they may ignore you.)

There are oodles of sites that provide news; news one doesn’t come across on television or in print - many of us go there.  Since most web savy people know the news already - give us your perspective, just don’t lift the story -  the exception would be if your blog happens to be a news blog, bulletin board, what have you.

In my opinion, blogging is kind of about that, unless it is a blog about the minutia of your daily life, a spiritual journal, a teaching blog, a spiritual blog, an author’s blog, a historical blog, etc. - which are always more interesting than reading a supplanted news story.  (AGAIN! - news blogs being the exception Stella!)

Finally, a blog can really be anything you want it to be, so go ahead, just ignore what I wrote.  It is probably just me - I don’t care for blogs that simply paste and copy news items with nothing else going on…unless they are a news source.

That’s all.

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The secret of The Secret.

It’s out!  Fr. Zuhlsdorf watched Cardinal Bertone on Italian television tonight, displaying the envelopes containing the Third Secret of Fatima, showing on camera the written text, and explaining that the sheet on which Sr. Lucia had written was folded in fours, which may have misled people into believing there was just a short written text, or something to that effect.  (A few priests and religious have actually devoted their life to trying to figure out what the secret could be  - haven’t spiritual writers cautioned about undo curiosity about stuff like that?)  Whatever.  It is not the DaVinci Code here.

Get a grip!

A Cardinal of the Catholic Church is NOT going to go on public televsion and lie to the world about “The Secret”.  To imagine some cover-up by the Church, the Pope, and the Cardinal in the first place is absurd.  The people who promote these conspiracy theories and imaginings are out of line.  What they do is instill mistrust of the Holy Father and the Church.  They foment derision and division amongst the faithful.

What exactly is it that these people think is being covered up?  In short, many believe Our Lady foretold the disintegration of the Church after Vatican II.  For instance, they insist, it foretold of a Masonic riddled hierarchy, which dismantled the liturgy and opened the Church to ecumenism, preparing the world for a one world religion and the anti-Christ - hence these people believe it is this “they” want covered up.  Gosh - I hate to break it to them, but we all know and have witnessed the division and confusion in the Church - for several decades now - it hasn’t been much of a ”secret”.

Fr. Zuhlsdorf concludes his post with this comment:

“Of course what was seen on TV tonight doesn’t really resolve anything.  Still, some one bent on saying that there is more to the secret will have to explain how what Card. Bertone showed on TV was inadequate proof.” 

I say, in the end, it doesn’t really matter.  The essential elements of the message of Fatima were revealed long before 1960.  The requests of Our Lady are well known, she revealed what was necessary for the faithful which would aid in our sanctifcation and salvation.  The “Third Secret” was for the Holy Father in the first place, and up to him to disclose it or not, and John Paul II decided to reveal it.  He did!

And another thing.

This is one of the reasons why people ignore the Fatima message in the first place, because of all the nut-jobs associated with “the cult”.  Even when I was little, Blue Army people floated around in blue suits and dresses and chapel veils, looking like overly pious, scared-to-death people, certain the world was going to end the next day.  Not a few of them may yet be found in the more extreme Sede/Trad movements of today. 

That’s all. - as Miranda would say. 

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Bosch: “Temptation of St. Anthony”

Temptations against chastity

Summer is upon us, and already the navel gazing starts.  Tight, low, low rise shorts, jeans, bare midriffs, low cut tops - but enough about what I’m wearing.  Nevertheless, it’s a distracting time of year, living in a pagan culture not unlike ancient Rome or Greece.  “Body, body…”  “Shake your groove thing, yeah, yeah…”  We are surrounded by all of that nudity, no longer just on the beach either.

Tanquerey on continence:

“Absolute continence is a duty of those who are not united in the bonds of lawful wedlock.”  (Now there’s a term you don’t hear very often these days - “lawful wedlock”.)  “Chastity is a frail and delicate virtue that cannot be preserved unless it be protected by other virtues.  It is, as it were, a citadel that requires for its defence the raising of outward ramparts.  These are four in number:

1)  Humility, which produces mistrust of self and prompts one to flee from dangerous occasions.

2)  Mortification, which by means of waging war against the love of pleasure, reaches the evil at its roots.

3)  Devotion to the duties of one’s state in life, which protects one from the perils created by idleness. 

4)  Love for God, which by filling the heart, prevents it from giving itself over to dangerous affections.

Within these four ramparts the soul is not only ready and able to repulse the onslaughts of the enemy, but also to grow in purity.” - The Spiritual Life 

Humility

Tanquerey goes on to discuss how humility is the guardian of chastity.  Now that I am older, I can tell you how lacking in humility I was as a young man, and even more so now.  Humility is so necessary in the spiritual life, the foundation of it.  The author of “The Spiritual Life’ explains that the virtue produces in us three dispositions;distrust in self and confidence in God, avoiding dangerous occasions of sin, and candid sincerity in the Sacrament of Penance.  Tanquerey quotes from another author in connection with his own statement, “Many a soul falls into impurity through pride and presumption.”

“Father Olier thus explains; ‘God, who cannot suffer pride in the soul, humbles it to the very depths; and, desiring to show the soul its weakness, and that it has no power of itself to resist evil and persevere in well doing…allows it to be tormented by those terrible temptations, and at times, even to fall, because such temptations are the most shameful and leave behind them the greater confusion.” -ibid

Distrust self - have confidence in God

Tanquerey warns, “This distrust must be universal.  It is necessary to those who have sinned grievously, for the temptation will return, and without the help of grace they will be exposed to a fresh fall.”  -ibid 

So fellas, pray, keep custody of the eyes - and ears - music is pretty titillating as well - pray some more, and when you feel that tickle - run like hell.  Get thee to Church, get back to work, run a marathon, whatever.

Even though we’d like to say, “The devil made me do it!” it is always our own fault.  Remember, we are tempted by the world, the flesh and the devil - and the first two usually save the devil a lot of work.

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Marialis cultus 

This feast day of the Visitation was once known as the feast of Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces, and in 1954 Pius XII proclaimed it as the feast of the Queenship of Mary.  (At that time the Visitation was celebrated on July 2.)  Obviously, after the Council, the Queenship of Mary was moved, and the Mediatrix of All Graces was suppressed, for whatever reason.  I’m of the opinion that it was to appease our Protestant brothers and sisters, who, on the more fundamentalist level, have no theology or liturgy, and think the Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon anyway.  Yet it was important to appease them I guess.  The loss of this feast in no way diminishes the truth, the dignity, or the glory of Our Lady, rather it diminishes our consciousness of the Divine Mysteries associated with devotion to the Virgin.

However, when we meditate the Gospel of the Visitation, we can see how Our Lady acted as Mediatrix in the fact that her visit to Elizabeth, while carrying the Infant Jesus in her womb, occasioned the grace of sanctification for the Baptist yet in Elizabeth’s womb.  His leap of joy seems to convey this truth in a mystical way.  The Mother of God did not sanctify the infant St. John, Christ, the Son of God did so, through what I would call the Blessed Virgin’s mediation, in cooperating with the plan of God.

Hallowed Ground has a nice post on the history of the feast of the Queenship of Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces - with a link to Pius XII’s proclamation. 

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Painting: “Aspects of Suburban Life” - Paul Cadmus. 

I guess I’m one of those moderns, as Chesterton would say.  I love realist art - showing warts and all - he didn’t.  From Dale Ahlquist:

“There is no such thing as art for art’s sake.  Chesterton says, ‘Philosophy is always present in a work of art.’  And the artistic philosophy that he subscribes to is Romanticism, as opposed to Realism.  Now, ‘isms’ are irritating, and usually difficult to keep track of, so we should know when Chesterton uses the term, ‘Realism’ it is not in reference to highly finished representational renderings, which he admires, but to an artistic philosophy that emphasizes the dark and dirty - and detachment from the eternal.  Realism claims to be: Life, warts and all.  But what Realism really is, is: Warts as life.  The realists claim to be holding up the mirror to nature, but then they start believing only the mirror, even after they have broken it.” - Common Sense 101

Fine.  It was his birthday yesterday and I’m glad I didn’t give him one of my paintings.  (Yes Joe, it would have been the seminary painting.) 

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I wrote about Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified the other day, and later, someone asked me how a saint could have experienced possession by the Devil, as this Carmelite, known as the Little Arab had been at one stage in her life.

What is possession?

“By possession the devil really dwells in the body of the victim, instead of making his action felt from the outside, as in obsession.  Moreover, by thus acting from within, he not only hinders the free use of a man’s faculties, but he himself speaks and acts by the organs of the possessed person, without the latter being able to hinder him from doing so, and even as a rule without him perceiving it.

“When we say that the devil dwells in the body of a person, we do not mean he is there like the soul itself which informs the body, but like a motor which, through the body, acts on the soul.”  Garrigou-Lagrange

In other words, the devil cannot enter the soul.  In cases of extreme obsession and in possession, the devil can overide, as it were, the person’s responsibility (culpability) in certain exterior acts.  (What is not meant here however, is the Flip Wilson excuse, “The devil made me do it.”  Thus permitting people to get away with murder or some other crime - that cannot be taken from what Garrigou-Lagrange is speaking about.) 

At this point in the chapter, Garrigou-Lagrange digresses, and mentions that sometimes in suffering the ravages of the dark night, a soul may even fall into serious sin, yet repenting, becomes the more humble for it, arising to a greater grace.  Unlike the possessed person, whose responsibility for exterior acts may be lessened.

Garrigou-Lagrange quotes a passage from the Dictionnaire Theologique concerning possession; “In our Western civilizations, men would be inclined to say that the devil is interested instead in dissimulating his action.  Does he not hold men so much better when they ignore or deny him?”  Although in our neo-pagan times, it seems to me the obsession/possession thing is making a comeback of sorts.

Normally, possession is  something of a punishment, or chastisement, whereas in the case of some of the saints, it was more of a purifying trial and more or less reparatory.  Such would be the case of Blessed Mary, who, as in the case of anyone possessed, her soul was inviolable.  The devil can only act upon our senses, our body, and our faculties.  All of this, is only if God permits it of course.

Garrigou-Lagrange offers key remedies for possession:

“1) The possessed person must do penance and purify his conscience by a good confession.

2) He should receive Holy Communion as often as possible.  The more pure and mortified a soul is the less hold the devil has over it; Holy Communion introduces into the soul the Author of grace who is the conqueror of Satan.  However, Holy Communion should be given only in moments of calm.

3) The possessed person should often implore the mercy of God by prayer and fasting.

4) With great spirit of faith he should make use of sacramentals, in particular the sign of the Cross and holy water.  The holy name of Jesus, etc.

5) Lastly, the ritual of exorcism, which only may be performed only by priests chosen by the bishop of the place and with his special authorization.” - Three Ages of the Interior Life, Vol. II

Obsession.

In the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje, Our Lady is reported to have said that today many people suffer obsessions.  I don’t know if she meant diabolical obsessions, although it seems to me, some obsessions may be just that.  Garrigou-Lagrange ends his chapter on diabolical phenomena with a note regarding obsessions, pointing out that an exorcism for these is not always efficacious.  He writes;

“Exorcisms are not always efficacious against obsession.  They do not deliver the soul completely from an obsession which is part of the passive purifications, for God permits it for a time known to him alone, in view of the great advantages which the soul should derive from this trial.” - Three Ages, Vol. II

Compulsive sin

This is interesting to consider, especially as regards those who struggle with extreme temptations, and experience a continual falling and rising from sin, even grave sin.  “If, Like St. Peter, the tried soul rises immediately with deep repentance, it receives a notable increase of grace and charity and it continues its ascent from the very spot where it stumbled for a moment. ‘Wherefore the penitent sometimes arises to a greater grace,’ says St. Thomas.” - Three Ages, Vol. II

I’m not saying that people like this are suffering some obsession from the devil, although in my experience, and listening to others, there are times when people feel so powerless over a temptation, and experience such a profound oppression, it seems as if they were almost compelled to act out.  Whether this is the result of habitual sin, I don’t know. Although, I should think a good sign of something supernatural at work would be indicated by the individual’s subsequent, almost immediate deep remorse and contrition for having sinned.  Devout and frequent confession in the Sacrament of Penance, along with frequent Holy Communion and Our Lady’s rosary, is what worked for me in such a trial. 

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St. Seraphim Sarovski, when speaking to Nicholas Motovilov on the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, became transfigured, and a great light enveloped he and his spiritual son, while he described the true aim of the Christian life:

“Prayer, fasting, vigil and all other Christian activities, however good they may be in themselves, do not constitute the aim of our Christian life, although they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end. The true aim of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ’s sake, they are only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. But mark, my son, only the good deed done for Christ’s sake brings us the fruits of the Holy Spirit. All that is not done for Christ’s sake, even though it be good, brings neither reward in the future life nor the grace of God in this. That is why our Lord Jesus Christ said: He who gathers not with Me scatters (Luke 11:23). Not that a good deed can be called anything but gathering, since even though it is not done for Christ’s sake, yet it is good. Scripture says: In every nation he who fears God and works righteousness is acceptable to Him (Acts 10:35).” St. Seraphim (Entire text)

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Dictating to God 

Sometimes when we pray we are like James and John in this morning’s Gospel, “Lord, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”  How many times do we pray and ask others for prayers for a specific intention, or make a novena asking for some thing, and then we don’t get it?  (Immaculate Heart of Mary’s Hermitage blog has a nice poem on the subject.)  In answer to that question however, God does indeed hear our every prayer, and never fails to answer.  The answer may not come when we expect, and it may not be what we asked for specifically either.  But he answers.

Often in the spiritual life we are tempted to dictate to God what we want, to insist upon Him giving us what we think we need…right now.  We want God to do what we want.  It is analogous to people insisting that The Church allow gays to marry, or women to be priests.  If you notice, when Our Lord responded to James and John, he told them, “To sit at my right or my left is not mine to give…”  Thus it would seem, even for Our Lord, there are some things that may not and cannot be done.

Think of John Paul II when he said that it is not within his power to allow women to be ordained.  Or when the Church declares, it is not within Her power to allow same sex marriage or to sanction unnatural sexual relations.  Some desires and requests are illicit, outside of God’s providence and will, therefore they cannot be granted.

The will of God

Years ago, I would ask the Carmelites to pray for me for this or that specific intention, and often, Mother Paula would say, “Yes, the sisters will pray that God’s will may be done.”  To tell the truth, I used to get rather annoyed at the response.  I wanted to hear, “Oh yes Terry, we will storm heaven that God grants you this specific grace or favor, because that is the most important thing in your life and you should get whatever you want, especially if we ask him for it.”  (After all, it is all about “me”.)

Nevertheless, this isn’t how Our Lord taught us to pray.  Of course he said for those that love him, and pray in his name, he promised that whatever they asked for would be granted them.  So it isn’t wrong to pray for specific intentions, temporal or spiritual.  However it seems to me it is a question of how we ask, and deeper still, our intentions for asking.  Again, that surrender to God’s will, and trust in his loving providence seems to be called for in our prayer, along with a faith-full detachment.

As our Lord taught, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Matthew 6:8  Our Lord did not mean by this that we shouldn’t ask, indeed, we must pray, asking for the graces we need, God requires that we do: “Ask, and you will receive, seek, and you will find, kncok and it will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

The Holy Spirit

Yet what are the good things the Father wants to give us?  Jesus told us: “If you, with all of your sins, know how to give your children good things, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” Luke 11:13

The Russian Saint, Seraphim Sarovski taught that the goal of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.  We who are Baptized and Confirmed in Christ have the Holy Spirit within us, we are his temple, his tabernacle.  Paul writes, “We ourselves have the Spirit as first fruits (of the redemption), groan inwardly while we await the redemption of our bodies.” Romans 8:23

Paul goes on to say, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groaning that cannot be expressed in speech.  He who searches hearts knows what the Spirit means, for the Spirit intercedes for the saints as God himself wills.” - Romans 8:26-27

Now, for me, this is a very liberating understanding of prayer.  It fires my heart, so to speak, with longing to recollect myself and enter into the Holy Spirit dwelling within my soul, into that relationship of the Blessed Trinity in the depths of my soul.  I think what St. Seraphim meant by the “acquisition of the Holy Spirit” is more akin to our openess and surrender to the Holy Spirit in prayer and recollection.

Thus, what more efficacious prayer is there but to pray “Thy will be done” confident in the Holy Spirit “whose power at work in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.” Ephesians 3:20  Yet that is not to say we may not ask for specific things, after all, Our Lord did not rebuke the disciples in today’s Gospel for their request.

St. Paul urges us to pray for everything we need, saying, “At every opportunity pray in the Spirit, using prayers and petitions of every sort.  Pray constantly and attentively…” Ephesians 6:18

Contemplatives and Charismatics seem to be pretty good at this.

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Painting: “The Dream” ( of St. Joseph), George Tooker 

Choice

On her feast day, I pondered the life of St.Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, particularly the vision of Our Lord offering her to choose between a crown of thorns or a crown of roses.  It was her choice to choose either a crown of thorns, which represented abnegation and suffering in the spiritual life, or that of a crown of flowers, which represented  a spiritual life of consolation.  I couldn’t help but marvel.  Not that she chose the crown of thorns, (They all do that - saints I mean.) albeit Our Lord seemed to tempt  her with the crown of roses, but I marveled that later, she was tempted to regret her choice.  No wonder, I believe she went through 5 years or so of incredible, unrelenting spiritual darkness, and assaults of the demon - without any consolation, not from Our Lord, nor from any self-assurance that she was achieving anything.

(For “normal” persons, this can be equated with spiritual aridity, believing without the consolation of faith as it were, professing one’s faith without ‘feeling’ it - going through the motions, so to speak.  The assaults of the demon may be interpreted as temptations, alienation and abjection, while experiencing one’s imperfections and faults, etc. - in some cases, a continual spiritual battle of sorts, sometimes even suffering grave wounds, quickly healed in the Sacrament of Penance.  Nevertheless, all the while never ‘feeling’ any relief or consolation in the darkness.)

It is so easy to make generous offerings and heroic choices when bathed in the sweet consolations that sometimes accompany our prayer.  Think of St. Peter, insisting he would follow Our Lord to death, and yet pressed in the fearful, hostile atmosphere of that night when Jesus was taken from him, his spiritual edifice collapsed and he denied the Lord 3 times.  He sinned, mortally, gravely, when he denied Our Lord…not once, but 3 times.  After the Ascension, Peter exhibited the same pusillanimity of spirit and had to be rebuked by St. Paul.

Consequence 

Have you ever read Fr. Ciszek?  I’ve read his book “He Leadeth Me” about 8 times over the years, and it always has something new to say to me.  Mary Magdalen de Pazzi’s regret reminded me of Ciszek’s experiences in a way.  While he was in the Soviet prison of Lubianka, he found great consolation in his solitary confinement, later calling it a contemplative experience.  When he was exiled to Siberia, he was thrown in amongst the most ruthless and dangerous criminals.  At first, he was unable to pray, to practice the recollection he enjoyed in the Moscow prison while in solitary confinement.  He had never been exposed to such evil.  In these loathsome conditions he experienced a mortal fear and confusion of spirit, as well as abandonment.  He wrote:

“I realized almost immediately that I was asking the questions, raising the doubts,that I had promised not to ask in abandoning myself to the will of God.  And I realized too that it’s one thing to give up such doubts and questions in a moment of grace and inspiration and spiritual insight, but another thing to prevent them arising spontaneously when the harsh and rough circumstances of a moment of daily life drives from the mind everything except thoughts of here and now.”- Walter Ciszek

When we resolve to follow Christ along the narrow way, when we give ourselves to cling to him in prayer - that prayer which is faith, hope for what is unseen, in love that is not felt; eventually the time may come when the bottom falls out of the sure footing we imagined for ourselves.  “When you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials.”  (Is that from Sirach?)  Anyway, in today’s Gospel, Our Lord guarantees many good things for those who leave everything to follow him, and yet he kind of “slips in” that other reward, “and persecutions beside.” 

Walter Ciszek lived through 23 years of unimaginable suffering in Soviet prisons, without any experience of lofty contemplation, transports or raptures, no visions, nothing extraordinary.  It was as if he lived in hell on earth.  His life is an astonishing testament and witness of faith, a perfect example of living the way of abandonment to Divine Providence.  In one section of the book he writes:

“I thought again and again of the text: ‘The children of this world are wiser than the children of light.’  …The challenge seemed plain.  Could my sacrifice, could my total dedication, could my stamina in doing the will of God be less than the children of this world?   They knew that in order to survive a long sentence a man had to face and conquer one day at a time.  …Each day to me should be more than an obstacle to be gotten over, a span of time to be endured, a sequence of hours to be survived.  For me each day came forth from the hand of God newly created and alive with opportunities  to do his will.  For me, each day was a series of moments and incidents to be offered back to God, to be consecrated and returned in total dedication to his will.  That is what my priesthood demanded of me, as it demanded of every Christian.”- “He Leadeth Me” 

Trust in God…trust means abandoning oneself to His will, His Divine Providence.    

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