Abbey-Roads2

Justice and peace have kissed.

In one of his messages, our Lord asked St. Faustina to snuggle close to his mercy on the Feast of Mercy, and that is what I did yesterday.  I wish I could convince everyone what a great feast the Second Sunday of Easter is and how willing the Lord is to embrace each soul who approaches him, trusting in his mercy and love.  

While at adoration one day a few weeks ago, I was thinking to myself how if I had known before what I know about myself now, I would probably have killed myself.  I thanked our Lord for ‘putting up’ with me for so many years, hiding from my sight these ’secret’ sins. (I think I’m talking about the root sins, the predominant fault from which actual sin emerges.)  I pondered the thought however - although keeping my secret for myself, since others wouldn’t understand what I meant.  Until yesterday, when I read the following locution from our Lord to St. Faustina, I didn’t really understand it either:

“You see what you are of yourself, but do not be frightened of this.  If I were to reveal to you the whole misery of what you are, you would die of terror.  However, be aware of what you are.  Because you are such misery, I have revealed to you the whole ocean of my mercy.” [718] 

I have more understanding…

In the morning meditation on the Gospel, Magnificat featured a reflection from M. Marie Des Douleurs, the Foundress of the Benedictine Sisters of Jesus Crucified.  (Don Marco is chaplain to the nuns in Connecticut, and has translated a couple of Mother’s writings.)  If memory serves me, M. Marie had some character weaknesses - nothing scandalous, really.  I believe she may have had a few bouts with drinking, as well as a penchant for drama - or so it seems to me - it is all hearsay on my part to write about it however.  (Don Marco can correct me if he likes.) 

Nevertheless, her defects became the “happy faults” that established her in humility… she came to understand “the whole of her misery” through them.  Likewise, through her own struggles,  she understood the weaknesses and temptations her beloved priests were subjected to - on some level, she shared in them.  (Her order of contemplative nuns was established to pray for priests.)  Our Lord often permits our falls, even serious failings, in order that we can become more humble after we repent, because if we are not conscious of our misery, we cannot understand the rest of our Lord’s message to Faustina:

“Because you are such great misery, I have revealed the whole ocean of my mercy.  Your trust in me forces me to continually grant you graces.  You have great and incomprehensible rights over my Heart, for you are a daughter of complete trust.  You would not have been able to bear the magnitude of the love which I have for you if I had revealed it to you fully here on earth.  I often give you a glimpse of it, but know that this is only an exceptional grace from me.  My love and mercy know no bounds.”  [718]

Little Souls

Little souls like Therese and Faustina acknowledged they were preserved from many failings and sins by a special grace, yet they understood well their own misery and admitted that if it were not for grace, they too were capable of serious sin.  Both Therese and Faustina especially wanted souls to know this, lest the weakest of us become discouraged and fail to have confidence in the Divine Mercy, since it is confidence and love that attracts the Divine Mercy.

From what I have learned of Mother Marie Des Douleurs, I believe she also was a little soul - maybe more like the rest of us who daily fall and rise on our spiritual journey.  Perhaps there was an illusion of grandness about her personality, even a certain flamboyant idealism, which was only tempered by the gradual awareness of her own shortcomings and failings, whereby she understood her supernatural vocation was sustained by sheer grace and mercy.

We only become truly humble and trusting of the Divine Mercy in and through the realization of our misery, and for some of us, this understanding is only possible through our continuous falling and rising.

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The roar of the waters.

deep calls unto deep… 

mercy calls unto misery,

our misery

calls unto his mercy…

in the roar of the waters -

such tears of shame and sorrow…

engulfed in the flow

of the blood and the water…

wherein mercy and truth meet,

and justice and peace embrace.

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[Photo:  M. Marie Des Douleurs from Vultus Christi - read about her here.  Don Marco - please correct me if I got it wrong regarding M. Marie.]

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Jesus I trust in you.

“I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over [its] enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I Myself will defend it as My own glory.” [48]

In one of the first booklets that Sister Faustina’s confessor, Father Sopocko, published, he mentioned a promise made by Jesus regarding the veneration of the Image of Himself that He told Faustina to paint, that we cannot find neither in the diary nor in her letters. Before St. Faustina was told by her spiritual director to keep a diary of her spiritual experiences, she used to record those, about which she thought she ought to inform him, on pieces of paper and give them to him. The Sister who was the vice-postulator for Poland knew that there was a collection of these which ultimately must have been given to the investigatory tribunal that was to inspect her writings, and it’s possible that this promise was mentioned among those papers. Anyway, Father Sopocko knew about it and I’m sure that if it wasn’t true, he would not have included it in that booklet. It was a promise that Jesus made: I will save those cities and houses in which this Image will be found. He also said: I will likewise protect the persons who will honor and trust in My Mercy. - Source

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“I am offering people a vessel with which they are to keep coming for graces to the fountain of mercy.  That vessel is this image with the signature: ‘Jesus I trust in you.’”  (Diary, 327)

There are now several versions of the image of the Divine Mercy.  Our Lord told Faustina:

 ’Not in the beauty of the color, nor of the brush lies the greatness of this image, but in My grace.‘ (Diary, 313)”

Our Lord promised:

“By means of this image I shall be granting many graces to souls; so let every soul have access to it.” (Diary, 570)

(Image: The Batkowski version.)

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A lifelong sentence. 

I read an account of an 84 year old Spanish woman who continues to suffer from depression over the loss of her child fifty seven years ago, due to a forced abortion.  Her fiance insisted she abort the child she was carrying, despite the fact they later married.  It is a tragic story.

Asked if she has ever forgotten it (the abortion), she is adamant.  “No, I never forgot about it. I thought about it day and night and I tried to do things to forget it. But it has come back now very strong.  The memory of that abortion has never left me, I have been depressed ever since,” Maria said. - CNA

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From Don Marco, who knows well about confidence and love.

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On the pregnant “man”

From Cosmos, Liturgy and Sex…

The fantasy of changing one’s personal meaning by changing one’s gender is derived from the fallacious belief that sexuality somehow frees us from our bondage to fear, inadequacies and despair. There is the tendency among many of us to cling to what can be lost or taken away, but there are those among us who invest their total being into these fears to the point where there can be no rest or satisfaction of ever receiving enough in return. To carry the burden of an external locus of control, one lives life with the constant feelings of being controlled by the actions of others and blown about by the whims of the world - being terrified of the bitter taste of losing or being denied of whatever is held in high value to them, some to the point of life itself.

Gender roles and identities are ultimately formed through the individual mind as experienced within the world which immediately surrounds us; consequently, some of us fail to recognize the potential fraud of assuming an identity in the first place. Constrained by deep insecurities and fears through reacting against the reality of one’s own sexual identity, some cling to a fantasy of there being something “wrong” with the external body vs. something being “wrong” internally, within the heart and mind. Simply speaking, Gender Identity Disorder is more of a rejection and abandonment of who one is, than the adoption of who and what one desires to be. - Post on “How does it feel to be a pregnant man?”

Whoever Shelray is, I thought this to be very insightful.

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Gay clubs on campus.

A recent study reports nearly half of all Catholic Universities host pro-gay clubs on campus.

“These groups tend to celebrate the homosexual lifestyle and promote a social environment that condones homosexual activity,” he told CitizenLink. “That is inconsistent with a Christian university’s responsibility to encourage chastity and students’ moral formation. It would be more appropriate to provide faithful pastoral care for students wrestling with their sexuality.” - Source

Doh!  So do Catholic high schools.  I’ve been told of two locally.  I’m not sure about Catholic elementary education, but I’m sure organizations such as the so-called  Catholic Pastoral Committee On Sexual Minorities are doing their best to infiltrate the schools.

Parents - you get what you pay for, and sometimess a little bit more.

Links:

Gay agenda gaining foothold in Catholic Education.

St Catherine’s Review on Bishop Moeddel 

LifesiteNews

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The memorial of his passion and death. 

Legend has it Our Lady retraced the steps of our Lord’s passion every day she remained in Jerusalem.  Many saints and devout people have likewise meditated daily upon the Passion, even during the week of Easter. 

I mention this, because another objection I’ve heard from priests regarding the devotion to the Divine Mercy within the Easter season is that the prayers focus one on the passion of Christ, at a time when the faithful ought to be contemplating the resurrected Christ.  I disagree, especially since our Lord, when manifesting his risen body to the disciples, “showed them his wounds” - nothing less than a sign of his suffering and death.

I also think some people may fail to recognize the Eucharistic aspect of the devotion to the Divine Mercy.  Indeed, the prayers of the chaplet seem to me to unite one specifically to the offering of the holy sacrifice of the Mass.  (As we know, the sacrifice of the Mass is the sacrifice of Calvary, and the Eucharist is the memorial of his passion.  That is just basic Catholic doctrine.)

Meditate the prayer of the chaplet: “Eternal Father, we offer you the most precious body, blood, soul, and divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.  For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”

It is easy to recognize this is a perfect prayer of union with all the Masses being celebrated throughout the world, as well as our Lord’s silent loving action in the Holy Eucharist, the memorial of his passion.  Never let anyone tell you it is an inappropriate devotion - it is a Paschal feast for the entire Church.

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and an exhibit in the Austrian Cardinal’s art gallery. 

When I was in 5th grade an unidentified fellow student drew an obscene picture on the back of a holy card Sr. Hiltrude distributed to the class.  We never found out who did the drawing, but I had my suspicions, as did my other classmates.  The drawing was crude, although it might be considered art today.  Especially by the curators of the Dommuseum of Vienna, the art gallery attached to the Cathedral of St. Stephen, and adjacent to the Archbishop’s palace of Christoph Cardinal Schonborn.

The Marxist artist, Alfred Hrdlicka (no, the last name is not a joke) is featured in a one man exhibition of his work, entitled, “Religion, Flesh, and Power”.  His heavy-handed, ‘Teutonic’ style  is decidely homo-erotic; compositions depicting Christ and the disciples engaged in homosexual sex acts.  (The ’art’ is similar to the gay grafitti a man might see in a public restroom.)   Gloria Television produced a short video of the works here.

“Dommuseum Director Bernhard Böhler said visitors asked “in a more or less emotional way” why the Apostles are depicted engaged in sex with one another.  According to the director, the artist responded, ‘There were no women around.’” - Religion and Spirituality.   

Arrogant response.

Photo: The artist, Hrdlicka.

Links:

LifesiteNews

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