Abbey-Roads2

In this case, people with mental illness.

I don’t know where that saying originates, but it’s a good one - especially if a person finds they are powerless over a chronic and debilitating illness - such as mental illness.  No, I’m not calling these people names or making fun of them -many people with mental illness lead full and productive lives- I use the saying loosely to remind us of the mercy of God concerning those whose (moral) responsibility may sometimes be diminished by circumstance or mental health.  One of my dear friends is bipolar and I suspect a few of my family members have been as well.

Mental illness is a terrible cross to bear - even if there are medications and treatment for it today - people continue to fear it and ostracize those who suffer from it.  As a child, St. Therese of the Child Jesus had a mysterious vision of her father’s intense suffering - a form of mental illness associated with stroke - that would beset him at the end of his life, and for which he was hospitalized.  (Mr. Martin and his wife Zelie will soon be beatified (October 19), thus along with their daughter, they could be wonderful intercessors for people who have mental illness - not forgetting St. Dymphna of course.) 

The way of spiritual childhood.

I mention Therese because a biographer or two believe she suffered from some form of mental illness as a small child, from which she was cured by Our Lady of the Smile - not all agree on the nature of her illness however, nor her father’s - so don’t get mad at me for posting it.  Nevertheless, I believe her “little way” of confidence and love is well suited to anyone who suffers the ravages of mental illness - often doing the things they do not will to do, and unable to do the things they would prefer to do.

Sr. Mary Martha has a wonderful post featuring a letter from a woman who suffers with bipolar disease.  The letter and Sister’s response, along with  compassionate reader’s comments are well worth your time.  Click here:  “Brother Martin“  and scroll down from Sister’s poll to the post.

And then don’t forget our friend Jackie Parkes who has written extensively about the illness. 

This blog is not closing or moving to the boiler room.

Hopefully I can improve on the writing and take more time with some of the posts however.

New rules?

According to the British Timesonline, the Holy Father has called for tighter protocol as regards recognition of apparitions and spiritual communications from heaven.

“The Pope has asked Monsignor Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, a Spanish Jesuit and secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - which Benedict himself headed as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - to draw up new guidelines for bishops around the world on the recognition of reported apparitions by the Virgin Mary.

Vatican official said the Pope wanted to avoid “excesses and abuses”. He believes bishops should resist being swayed by the emotional reaction of believers and be guided instead by strictly applied “scientific, psychological and theological criteria”. - TimesOnLine 

There are never new rules - it is simply a matter of tighter discipline.  There have been a couple of apparitions approved by local bishops I have a great deal of difficulty with, such as Betania, Venezuela, where a rose supposedly grew out of the chest of the seer;  and Ida Perlman of Amsterdam and the Our Lady of All Nations revelations.  I have never read anything that could convince me these events make any sense.  Don’t be offended - we do not have to accept private revelations.  As Cardinal Ratzinger once stated in an interview, “No apparition is indispensable to the faith”.

Photo:  I love this photo - I call it “Pope out for a ride” - it is a photo of Blessed John XXIII.

.
Remember the classic Seinfeld episode where Elaine is aghast to find out that boyfriend David Puddy (pictured) is religious?  (He listened to Christian radio stations and had a Jesus fish on his car)

Elaine: Oh. So, you’re pretty religious?
Puddy: That’s right.
Elaine: So is it a problem that I’m not really religious?
Puddy: Not for me.
Elaine: Why not?
Puddy: I’m not the one going to hell.

(At some point Puddy asks Elaine to steal a newspaper - explaining it won’t matter because she is going to hell anyway.)

Links:

Nativity of Mary

I’m not taking comments right now.

Why?  Because I’m too busy to be online as much as you are.  I have to get things ready around the house and yard for fall and winter.  I will continue to post, but with comments disabled for awhile, that way I’m the only one who comes off the fool - not you.  And please don’t take it personally.  (It also takes a lot of time to moderate comments and answer emails.)

Some thoughts.

I like to imagine the Holy Spirit sometimes inspires me by bringing forth spiritual thoughts - especially when they seem to come out of nowhere, while I’m  working or engrossed in a project.  Yesterday as I was repairing a wall, I recalled these words, “salvation is so uncertain”.  I pondered over them, and ruminated… I went to the church to pray before the Blessed Sacrament - and although I knew the words to be true in a sense - I couldn’t recall where the words were from, since I knew very well they came from something I had read. 

My first thought was that it was part of a quote from St. Alphonsus in his book “Preparation For Death”.  I don’t have the book - and I have never read the entire thing, so I thought it may have been a pull-quote I had seen.  This morning the word was with me as I prayed and I realised it was from John of the Cross, and the Canticle.  As usual, like some of Edith Stein’s sayings, my mind rearranged the words - although the message and the call remains the same.

Time is so uncertain…

“THE soul, considering the obligations of its state, seeing that “the days of man are short” [Jb. 14:5]; that the way of eternal life is straight [Mt. 7:14]; that “the just man shall scarcely be saved” [1 Pt. 4:18]; that the things of this world are empty and deceitful [Eccl. 1:2]; that all die and perish like water poured on the ground [2 Kgs. 14:14]; that time is uncertain, the last accounting strict, perdition most easy, and salvation most difficult; and recognizing also, on the other hand, the great debt that is owing to God, Who has created it solely for Himself, for which the service of its whole life is due, Who has redeemed it for Himself alone, for which it owes Him all else, and the correspondence of its will to His love; and remembering other innumerable blessings for which it acknowledges itself indebted to God even before it was born:  and also that a great part of its life has been wasted, and that it will have to render an account of it all from beginning to the end, to the payment of “the last farthing” [Mt. 5:26], when God shall “search Jerusalem with lamps” [So. 1:12]; that it is already late, and the evening far spent [Lk 24:29]: in order to remedy so great an evil, especially when it is conscious that God is grievously offended, and that He has hidden His face from it, because it would forget Him for the creature, -the soul, now touched with sorrow and inward sinking of the heart at the sight of its imminent risks and ruin, renouncing everything and casting them aside without delaying for a day, or even an hour, with fear and groanings uttered from the heart, and wounded with the love of God, begins to invoke the Beloved and says:”

“Where have you hidden… my beloved!”  - Spiritual Canticle

Very often it seems Our Lord can teach us in just a few words what others learn only through years of  careful study - and yet everything is a grace, a gift from Him.  As St. Paul says in the first reading of today’s Mass:

“What do you possess that you have not received?  But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it?” - 1 Corinthians 4

It is so easy to lose our way and withdraw our hearts from God…  To account ourselves as something, for as the day’s reading from St. Paul says, “You are already satisfied”.  This satisfaction or complacency can cause us to withdraw from our spiritual exercises and seek instead human respect, and vain praise and honors.  We become self-absorbed and our judgement obscured as regards truth and justice.  As Isaiah says, “Your princes are rebels, and comrades of thieves; Each one of them loves a bribe (or flattery) and looks for gifts.  The orphan they defend not, and the widow’s plea does not reach them.” - Isaiah 1:23

“The just man shall scarcely be saved.”  - 1 Peter 4:18 

Words cannot save us now…

I often think of those words of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, only recalling them thus: “Words cannot save us now, only the passion of Christ, and I want to participate in it.”

I’ll be offline today - joining with the Italians, praying for our brothers and sisters in Orissa.

Links:

Orissa Burning.