Abbey-Roads2

“God uses what is foolish to shame the wise.”

“It often happens that someone sees himself sitting peacefully and quietly, but when his brother says a word that upsets him, he is troubled. Thus, he thinks that he is justly upset with him, saying, “O If he hadn’t come and spoken to me and troubled me, I wouldn¹t have sinned.” 

But this is folly and absurdity. Did the person that spoke to him give him that passion? He simply showed him the passion that existed within him, so that, if he wanted to, he could repent of it. He is like fine bread that shines on the outside, but when one breaks it, he sees its moldiness.

 In just the same way, he was sitting, as he thought, in peace, but he had this passion inside him he was unaware of. His brother said one word and revealed the filth hidden inside him. Therefore if he wants to receive mercy, he must repent, purify himself, progress and he must understand that he ought to thank his brother for being the great cause of his spiritual benefit.” - Abba Dorotheos of Gaza

And I would add that we will have many trials more.

Pray for me - I am only a simple fool…  No better than a brute beast… 

The problem of innocent suffering and stuff you just can’t fix or explain away.

This past week there were two local news stories that really got to me.  One story concerned a newborn baby, born at a local hospital whose oxygen dome caught fire and the little kid is now in critical condition - badly burned.  The other story was about a toddler whose mother died and she just stayed by her mommy for three days until someone came in and found them.  The little baby still thinks her mom is just sick.

Doesn’t that tear your heart out?  What can you say about stuff like that!  You can’t say to the suffering - “Oh, it is God’s will.”  You can’t say to people close to them, “God is allowing this for your good, my good, anybody’s good.”  And you better not say, “God is punishing them for sin.”  We don’t really know that - I don’t care what theologians say - we don’t understand the mystery of innocent suffering.  Human beings cannot explain mysteries.  All we can do is speculate or parrot something someone else once said. 

Certainly God draws good out of evil, but it makes you want to tear your heart out and scream when confronted with innocent suffering.  Which is the reason why St. Francis wept at the sight of lambs…  they reminded him of the sufferings of the innocent Christ.

He simply wept.

Always a day of penance.

Penitence may be likened to a tree, having its root in contrition,
biding itself in the heart as a tree-root does in the earth; out of
this root springs a stalk, that bears branches and leaves of
confession, and fruit of satisfaction. Of this root also springs a
seed of grace, which is mother of all security, and this seed is
eager and hot; and the grace of this seed springs of God,
through remembrance on the day of judgment and on the pains
of hell. The heat of this seed is the love of God, and the desire
of everlasting joy; and this heat draws the heart of man to God,
and makes him hate his sin. Penance is the tree of life to them
that receive it. - Parson’s Tale: Canterbury Tales

Some thoughts for the feast of St.Francis De Sales.

At various times throughout my life I have been exceedingly  diligent in practicing prayer;  praying the Liturgy of the Hours, devoting x amount of time to Lectio Divina, practicing mental prayer, “getting in”  my hours of adoration, praying the daily Rosary, and so on.  Not unlike a child who uses “Sacrifice Beads” I was content, and maybe a bit proud, that “I got everything in” for the day.  On occasion, after making ‘my quota’, I often indulged myself that evening - not necessarily sinfully, but I certainly had a good time.  (Didn’t we D.!)

We can fool ourselves by an observant lifestyle, with all the outward appearances of holiness, yet within, we unwittingly remain open to innumerable opportunities for vice.  Oftentimes, we are not even aware of our own propensity for sin.  Because we are self-satisfied with our religious observance?  Maybe.

Which is often why God allows some people to fall repeatedly into serious sin.  He loves humility, and no matter how difficult the truth is, he desires we come to know it.  Some people think orthodoxy and fidelity to a regular routine of devotion ensures that a person is infallibly on the right track for holiness.  That should  be the case - yet sometimes it isn’t always the irrefutable sign.  Prayer and fidelity is much more a matter of the heart, and most definitely the will.  Sometimes, we may pray like angels, and perform good works like the saints, but our hearts can remain detached from God. 

St. Francis on prayer:

First, let us remark in passing that, although we condemn certain heretics of our time who hold that prayer is useless, we nevertheless do not hold  with other heretics that it alone suffices for our justification. We say simply that it is so useful and necessary that without it we could not come to any good, seeing that by means of prayer we are shown how to perform all our actions well. I have therefore consented to the desire which urges me to speak of prayer, even though it is not my intention to explain every aspect of it because we learn it more by experience than by being taught.

Moreover, it matters little to know the kind of prayer. Actually, I would prefer that you never ask the name or the kind of prayer you are
experiencing because, as St. Antony says, that prayer is imperfect in which one is aware that one is praying. Also, prayer which one makes without knowing how one is doing it, and without reflecting on what one is asking for, shows clearly that such a soul is very much occupied with God and that, consequently, this prayer is excellent. - Sermon for the Third Sunday of Lent

“The fundamental disposition of heart which little Therese spoke of: it is a mixture of humility, of trust, of habitual recourse to God in distress; it is even sometimes a kind of supernatural joy at experiencing one’s misery and great need of help from above at every moment. In short, it is the Truth, true Divine Love, the true light which we must welcome and increase within ourselves by the practice of fraternal charity.” - Mother Agnes of Jesus (Pauline, eldest sister of St. Therese.)

“…Even if you have fallen many times, that does not matter, quite the contrary. The more you fall with humility, the more the pearls in your crown will shine.” - M. Agnes

Cathy  reminds us that today is an official day of penance in all the dioceses of the United States, in reparation for the sin of abortion and in prayer for the restoration of laws protecting human life in our country.

Today is also the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and the March for Life  in our nation’s capital.

I’ll be offline the rest of the day - back this evening to post comments.

The school of self-knowledge. 

“When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?

Or do you think I am like yourself?

I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.” - Psalm 50

This is a very difficult trial - to be shown our sins.  Which is why we must have great confidence in the passion and death of our Lord, who bore our sins and nailed them to the cross.   

“Canary Yellow” - Robert Clinch

I’ll be painting today… I hope.

A poem by Maria Rilke Rainer

SAINT SEBASTIAN
stands like someone lying down,
propped up by his own huge will.
Off somewhere else, like mothers when they nurse,
and bound in himself like a wreath.

And the arrows arrive: now, and now,
as if they sprang out of his thighs,
iron and trembling at the ends.
And still he smiles darkly, he’s not hurt.

Just once a sadness suddenly looms large,
and his eyes grow naked with pain
until they deny something, not worth the trouble,
filling with scorn as they come to relinquish
those who would kill a beautiful thing. -MRR

The legends of Sebastian. 

Little factual information is known about St. Sebastian other than he was a Roman martyr during the reign of Diocletian, buried on the Appian Way at Rome.  His legend varies somewhat and is rather colorful; he was said to be an officer of the imperial guard and favorite of the Emperor, sentenced to death after it was discovered he was a Christian. 

Sebastian was taken out, shot with arrows, left for dead, only to be revived by St. Irene, a widow of another martyr.  Nursed back to health, Sebastian returned to court to plead for the persecuted Christians and was once again sentenced to death.  This time the martyr was beaten to death with cudgels.

Sebastian compared to Apollo.

St. Sebastian became a rather romantic figure as time went on.  Some say he was invoked against the plague because it was believed the pestilence was a result of Apollo’s arrows.  Interestingly enough, he became associated with the myth of Apollo, and there after depicted in Western art as a young, handsome, athletic man.

From medieval times, through the Renaissance, and into our own day,  St. Sebastian usually is depicted nearly naked in art, becoming a sort of neo-pagan image of male beauty.  Since most art was in service to the Church, very few opportunities were available for early artists to portray the human body, save for in images of the damned, Christ in his passion, and some of the martyrs, such as St. Sebastian.

The legend distorted.

The Renaissance permitted a greater freedom in this regard, and Sebastian has been naked ever since.  This opened the way for 19th and 20th century artists to overlay the legend of Sebastian with homo-erotic elements, which has misled many gay people into thinking Sebastian was homosexual. 

Having said that, St. Sebastian would be a good patron for people with same sex attraction, especially men.  A model of masculinity and courage, the martyr Sebastian  can surely be a holy helper to someone who struggles with issues of gender identity and chastity.   The intercession of the martyrs is especially efficacious in any struggle against the flesh.